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THE BLESSED HOPE: 



OR, 



THE GLORIOUS COMIIG 



OF THE LORD. 



"Every eye shall see Him."— REVEiiATioK 1 



WILLIS LORD, D. D 




Chicago: 
w. g. holmes, 77 madison street, 

1877. 



v> 



^%%^ 



^^ 






Copyright, W. G. Holmes, 1877. 



A. J. GOFK & CO., PRINTERS, CHICAGO. 






p 



ONTENTS 



1. The First Coming of the Messiah, - - i 

2. He will Come Again, - - - - - - 23 

3. When will He Come Again? . _ _ 59 

4. Question of Time, Continued, - - - - 99 

5. Power and Use of this Hope, - - - 151 



3fratjer* 



Most Holy Spirit of God! Guide 
Thou the writer and the readers of 
this little book into the knowledge of 
Him, of whom Moses in the law, 
and the prophets did write as the 
Messiah ; and whom the evangelists 
and apostles proclaimed as the divine 
Redeemer and Lord of men. Amen. 



THE FIEST COMING. 



THE FIRST COMING. 



" When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law'' — Gal. 4: 4. 



" Christ, by highest heaven adored ; 
Christ, the Everlasting Lord; 
Late in time, behold Him come, 
Offspring of the virgin's womb. 
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see ; 
Hail, the Incarnate Deity! 
Pleased, as man, with men to dwell, 
Jesus, the Immanuel ! " 



rr^HE great Hope set before men, in the 
^ Old Testament, was the coming of the 
Messiah. As the bow in the cloud, when the 
storm is past, stretches from horizon to hor- 
izon, so this hope spanned, with its beauty 
and power, the whole period from Eden to 
Bethlehem. It sprang up out of that gra- 



The Blessed Hope. 



clous promise of God, so strangely yet sig- 
nificantly wrought Into the curse upon the 
serpent, after the fall. It became a most 
wondrous historic fact, by the birth of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of Mary, and the Son of God. 

REVELATION PROGRESSIVE. 

Divine Revelation was progressive. Its 
first rays were few and dim. They cast. In- 
deed, a blessed gleam upon One who should 
be the seed of the woman, but who, notwith- 
standing this, In the terrific conflict just then 
begun, would at length conquer. As the 
centuries rolled on the sacred light shone 
clearer, fuller, brighter. It brought gradually 
into view all the varied and marvellous 
aspects of the character and work of Him 
who was to be, not only the Bruiser of 
the serpent, but also the Bringer of Rest ; 
the Redeeming Angel ; the revered and 
world-ruling Shiloh ; the Stone and Shep- 
herd of Israel; the Captain of the Lord's 
Host; the Root and the Offspring of David; 



The First Coming. 



the Wonderful; the Counsellor; the Mighty 
God ; the Everlasting Father ; the Prince of 
Peace ; the Lord our Righteousness ; the 
Messenger of the Covenant ; or, putting the 
immense meaning of all these names into 
one — the Messiah. 

PROPHETIC VISION. 

By the godly of the former dispensations, 
the coming of the Messiah was doubtless 
conceived of as one coming. They saw, 
indeed, the differing and often antagonistic 
features of His presence and action among 
men, as delineated by the prophets ; but, to 
their view, those features were interminorled. 
Distance shortened, or altogether effaced the 
perspective. When from a remote point we 
look upon the mountains, they seem as if 
in contact. Base crowds upon base ; peak 
touches peak. In fact, they are separate, 
often, by wide intervals. Ascend the range 
which is nearest, and from its top you learn 
that what seemed a part of it Is afar off 



The Blessed Hape. 



So when the ancient prophets, in the Hght 
of the Lord, looked into the future, it was 
like looking upon the mountains. The great 
events embosomed there appeared contigu- 
ous, side by side. There was but little, if 
any, discernible distance between them. As, 
however, in the flow of time, prophecy has 
become history, those events have proved 
to be successive ; often, remote, each from 
the other. Isaiah and Daniel, for instance, 
had most impressive visions of things then to 
come. They saw the Messiah. They saw 
Him — now in His humiliation, despised and 
rejected of men, and led in silence as a lamb 
to the slaughter. They saw Him — now in 
His glory as a mighty King, the joy of His 
true subjects, and triumphing over all His foes. 
It was, however, as if in one and the same 
picture. Its dark shades and its glowing lights 
were blended. No clearly defined, much less 
long interval, was apparent between the altar 
and the throne ; the cross and the crown. 
With us, Calvary is in the far past ; the mil- 



The First Coming. 



lennial conquests and glories are yet to 
come. 

AMONG THE GENTILES. 

Nor was this great Hope limited to the 
worshippers of Jehovah. In the substance of 
it, it had a place and power among the Gen- 
tiles. As the families of men increased and 
went out in separate and diverging lines from 
the original home of the race, they carried 
with them the memories of the lost paradise. 
Among the most vivid of those memories was 
that promise of Jehovah Elohim — the Lord 
God, of the victory, at length, over the serpent, 
the prime deceiver and destroyer, by the seed 
of the woman, the most gracious and power- 
ful restorer ; that, however long and fierce the 
battle might be, Immanuel should win it. The 
golden age with which the world began had 
indeed vanished away, but from the ruins 
around them, they looked hopefully forward 
to a golden age in the future. Doubtless, as 
one generation after another came and went, 



The Blessed Hope, 



this hope as resting on a divine promise grew 
more and more indefinite and feeble, but then 
necessity took the place of promise. Human 
needs became great and most urgent. The 
consciousness, also, of creature impotence be- 
came complete. God alone could save. The 
Gentiles as well as the chosen people were 
compelled to look upward. Socrates and 
Plato, the peers of the mightiest in intellect, 
confessed that help must come from a Divine 
One. Before the last of the Hebrew prophets, 
the hope of Israel was also the desire of the 
nations. This deep feeling ripened into 
strong faith and intense expectation. As the 
Christian era drew nigh, men everywhere were 
intent on what should come. In the West, Vir- 
gil sung of the last time of the Cumean Sibyl, 
as present ; of a new order of the ages just at 
hand ; of a new progeny about to descend 
from the skies and bring back the reign of 
truth and right. All through the East, as 
Tacitus and Suetonius relate, the nations were 
looking for some extraordinary person to arise 



The First Coming. 



in Judea and sway the sceptre of the world. 
In Jerusalem, that earthly centre of the most 
sacred memories and hopes, devout souls like 
Simeon and Anna were daily waiting for the 
consolation of Israel. From their distant 
home, near the Euphrates, or perhaps in 
Persia, the Magi actually came to the cove- 
nant land with costly gifts and profound 
homage for the new-born King. 

THE SIGNS FULFILLED. 

We can see that precisely then the signs 
of this great event, as foretold by the prophets, 
had become, or were visibly becoming histori- 
ical facts. The Tabernacle of David was fallen 
down. The memorable weeks of Daniel drew 
near to their close. The second temple was 
still standing but would presently be destroyed. 
The sceptre was departing from Judah, and a 
Lawgiver from between His feet. What of 
regal and legislative power still remained to 
the Jews was wielded by Herod, an Edomite 
and a tyrant. He had the name, and sur- 



8 The Blessed Hope, 

rounded himself with all the pageantry of a 
king, but he was dependent upon the will and 
power of Rome. The coin, current among the 
people for secular uses, bore the image and 
superscription of Caesar. Soon after Herod's 
death, Palestine was made a province of the 
iron empire. So clearly was it the fulness of 
the time. 

CHARACTER OF THE COMING. 

At an early period intelligent faith discerned 
that, while the Messiah was to be the seed of 
the woman. He was also to be immensely more. 
Eve herself had a glimpse of the wondrous 
fact, when she exclaimed, " A man, Jehovah ! " 
Isaiah declared no unknown truth when he 
said, " Thou shalt call his name Immanuel;" 
nor Micah when he wrote : " Whose goings 
forth have been from of old, from everlasting ; " 
nor Zechariah, when he foretold that Jehovah 
of Hosts would cry, "Awake, O sword, against 
the man that is my fellow." Upon this most 
august Being — divine-human — the faith and 



The First Coming. 



hope of many ages fixed with an unyielding 
grasp. Such an One it was, allied both to 
earth and heaven, who would come as the 
Deliverer. How would He come 1 How did 
He come ? The fact corresponded literally 
with the prediction. 

NOT ONLY ESSENTIAL. 

He came not only in His essential presence. 
By this presence He is everywhere, in all 
worlds ; through all duration. He was thus 
in the world from the day of its birth, as He 
will be in it until the day of its doom, filling^ 
all space and encompassing all being. 

NOR ONLY PROVIDENTIAL. 

He came not only in His providential pres- 
ence. By this presence also, He is every- 
where. Having made the worlds and the 
things which are in them, He constantly up- 
holds and governs what He made ; pervading^ 
and energizing all nature ; maintaining and 



10 The Blessed Hope. 

operating all law ; directing and controlling all 
events. 

NOR ONLY SPIRITUAL. 

He came not only in His spiritual presence. 
In this sense, too, He was in the world from 
the beginning until the flood, striving with the 
wicked ; imparting life and strength to the 
godly, and working in all men salutary convic- 
tions of sin and righteousness. In this sense 
He was in the world all the period after the 
flood, from Noah to Malachi ; and from 
Malachi to the beginning of the Gospel. He 
wrought faith in the patriarchs. He gave the 
spirit of law and government to Moses ; of 
mighty valor to Joshua; of righteous judg- 
ment to Samuel ; of unequaled song to David. 
It was He, by His Holy One, in the prophets 
of Israel and Judah, who stimulated their in- 
dividual life and power as men of God, and 
fitted them for the noblest service in connec- 
tion with His truth and His kingdom. 



The First Corning. 11 



NOR ONLY SYMBOLICAL. 

He came not only in His symbolical pres- 
ence. In the earlier ages, when the written 
Word was not yet given, or was only in its 
beginning, He made Himself known, from 
time to time, to His people, in fitting and 
significant forms visible to their sight ; as in 
the sword-like flame at Eden ; as a man to 
Abraham in Mamre, and to Jacob at Peniel ; 
as a mighty warrior to Joshua, near Jericho; 
and as the angel of the Lord to Manoah and 
his wife, among the Danites. All these ap- 
pearances, and others like them, were theo- 
phanies — manifestations of God. They were 
real and supernatural, but they were symbolic 
and transient. They occurred in seasons of 
exigency. They served special purposes in 
the divine administration. They were all fore- 
shadows of something better and more glori- 
ous in the time to come. They were made by 
Him, whom the saints in those ages knew as the 
Jehovah-angel, or the angel of the covenant. 



12 The Blessed Hope. 



BUT IN THE FLESH. 

He came by Incarnation. The Eternal 
Father prepared for Him a body. He took 
Into union with Himself our nature, and 
brought himself Into our essential condition. 
His coming was literal, visible, personal. The 
record Is no more amazing than it Is explicit. 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. The 
same was In the beginning with God. All 
things were made by Him, and without Him 
was not anything made that was made. In 
Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us, full of grace and truth." " When 
the fulness of the time was come, God sent 
forth His Son made of a woman, made under 
the law." " Who being In the form of God, 
thought It not robbery to be equal with God, 
but made Himself of no reputation ; and took 
upon Him the form of a servant, and was 
made in the likeness of men, and being found 



The First Coming. 13 

in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, and 
became obedient unto death ; even the death 
of the cross : " (John i : 1-14 ; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 
2 : 6-8.) Men saw Him in the weakness of 
infancy. They saw Him grow in stature 
and in knowledge. They saw Him in Judea, 
in Samaria, in Galilee, in the coast of Tyre 
and Sidon, going about doing good ; speaking 
most gracious words, and performing most 
mighty works. They saw Him tempted in the 
wilderness ; asleep in the ship on Gennesaret ; 
weary at the well in Sychar ; a-hungered by 
the wayside from Bethany ; in tears at the 
grave of Lazarus. They saw Him in agony in 
the garden ; in the sharp pains of death on the 
cross ; and buried in the new tomb of Joseph, 
which was hewn out in a rock. In the body 
which God prepared Him, He lived, labored, 
suffered, died, rose again, and ascended on 
high, whence He came, leading captivity cap- 
tive. 



14 The Blessed Hope. 



RESULT. 

Thus, in exact agreement with the voices of 
prophecy through the centuries before, and 
with the resulting hope of the people of God, 
the long-looked for Messiah came. His com- 
ing formed an epoch. It was the goal of all 
the then past; it was the starting-point of all 
the then future. Then, however, was seen 
what had not been seen distinctly until then. 
From the summit thus gained, men discovered 
that what from a distance had seemed to be a 
part of it, was in fact, another summit farther 
off. They discovered that an interval, filled 
with most interesting and vital things, lay 
between the humiliation and the glory of the 
Messiah; that instead of intermingling, as 
had been the appearance in the prophetic pano- 
rama, they were separate and distinct, each 
having not only its own special characteristics, 
but also its own special period. All that which 
had been foretold of the former was indeed 
now signally fulfilled. Not one word which 



The tirst Coming. 15 

" holy men spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost," when "they testified beforehand, 
the sufferings of Christ," fell to the ground. 
" He was in the world, and the world was made 
by Him, and the world knew Him not. He 
came unto his own, and his own received Him 
not." "He spake as never man spake," con- 
firming his incomparable words by many un-^ 
deniably divine works, but in vain with refer- 
ence to the mass of men. Having eyes they 
saw not, and having ears they heard not;, 
neither would they understand with their heart 
and be converted. Expressing his estimate of 
human character, Cicero had said that if per- 
fect excellence could be embodied, or become 
incarnate, the world would bow down and wor- 
ship. The great Roman orator was wholly 
mistaken. In the Messiah, perfect excellence 
had visible embodiment; and yet from His 
birth in Bethlehem to His death on the cross, 
men and devils combined to make his life one 
of trial and sorrow. When He publicly 
entered upon His unexampled mission as the 



16 The Blessed Hope. 



Saviour of men, Jews and Gentiles alike de- 
rided His claims and rejected His message. 
*' The kin^s^s of the earth stood up, and the 
rulers were gathered together against the Lord 
and against his Christ." Pharisees and Sad- 
ducees, scribes and priests were as one man in 
their will and efforts to put Him to shame be- 
fore the people, and bring discredit on His 
character. His teaching and His works. The 
fearful climax was reached, when with loud 
voices the furious crowd demanded of Pilate, 
" Crucify Him! crucify Him !" and that crime 
without a parallel was done. See them : 

" See how his back the scourges tear, 
Unto the bloody pillar bound ; 
The ploughers make long furrows there, 
Till all his body is one wound. 

In scorn they robe Him, crown, adore, 

In spite they rend His robe away ; 
They crush Him with that burden sore. 

They drag Him up the accursed way, 

His sacred limbs they stretch, they tear. 
With nails they fasten to the wood ; 

His sacred limbs exposed and bare. 
Or only covered with His blood. 



The First Coming. 17 

Behold His temples crowned with thorn, 
His bleeding hands spread out so wide ; 

His streaming feet transfixed and torn, 
The fountain gushing from His side. 

Where is the King of Glory now? 

The everlasting Son of God ? 
The Immortal hangs His languid brow ; 

The Almighty faints beneath the load." 

Most utter humiliation of the Messiah ! 
What bitterer ingredient could be added to 
His cup of suffering and shame .r^ It did not 
however deter Him, nor did it surprise Him. 
He foreknew it all from the eternal years and 
made haste to meet it. Most freely He chose 
it all, rather than that Satan should triumph 
and men should perish. It had its firm place 
in the covenant of peace between the Father 
and the Son. It was there as a condition of 
the promised glory. It was thus He laid the 
broad and deep foundation of that glory. In 
this way it was He finished the transgression, 
sealed up sins from the sight of God, made 
reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in the 
everlasting righteousness. By means of the 
cross, He won the crown. 



18 Tlie Blessed Hope. 

INFERENCE. 

Nor can It be reasonably doubted, that the 
absokitely Hteral fulfilment of everything 
which the sure word of prophecy foretold of 
the low estate of Him who was to come, in- 
vests with certainty a like fulfilment of every- 
thing which the same sure word foretells of 
Him as the world-wide Conqueror and the 
King of Kings. God himself has given us the 
true principle of prophetic fulfilment, and 
therefore of prophetic interpretation, in the 
palpable and amazing facts of history. Who 
will dare affirm, in respect to this matter, that 
the future will be the reverse of the past, or 
out of analogy with it ; or that the past mis- 
leads and deceives men as to the future ? No 
conceivable presumption against any prophecy 
now unfulfilled can be so extreme as was that 
against the incarnation and the death of the 
Messiah, who, though the Son of Man, was 
also the Son of God. But the incarnation 
and the death have taken place. They have 



The First Coming, 19 

their record as undeniable, unexampled, ever- 
lasting realities. The Messiah was born, and 
He died. As certainly He will triumph and 
gloriously reign. 

"God with us! Oh, glorious name ! 
Let it shine in endless fame ; 
God and man in Christ unite ; 
Oh ! mysterious depth and height! 

God with us! the Eternal Son, 
Took our soul, our flesh, our bone; 
Now, ye saints, His grace admire, 
Swell the song with holy fire. 

God with us! but tainted not 
With the first transgressor's blot; 
Yet He did our sins sustain, 
Bear the guilt, the curse, the pain. 

God with us! Oh, wondrous grace! 
Lo! we see Him face to face, 
Now, Immanuel we may sing. 
Gracious Saviour, glorious King! " 



4^^ 



THE COMING AGAIN. 



THE COMING AGAIN, 



" Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second 
time, without sift, unto salvation." — Heb. 9: 28. 



On His shoulder He shall bear 
Power and majesty; and wear 
On His vesture and His thigh, 
Names most awful, names most high. 

Wonderful in counsel He; 

Christ, the Incarnate Deity; 

Sire of Ages, ne'er to cease, 

King of Kings, and Prince of Peace." 



nnHE great Hope set before men in the 
^ New Testament Is the coming again of 
the Messiah ; or, using the Greek form of 
the word — The Christ. The two words are 
one in meaning, and denote in the Scriptures 
the same person. The Messiah of the law 



24 The Blessed Hope, 

and the prophets is the Jesus Christ of the 
evangelists and the apostles. Paul, therefore, 
upon his conversion, preached Jesus, that He 
is the Son of God ; that the Messiah must 
needs die and rise again ; and that Jesus Is 
He. So far as the person is concerned, all 
that the Old Testament made known as to 
the then coming One has its realization In 
Him who was born in Bethlehem of Judea». 
Having sanctified infancy and childhood by 
being Himself an infant and a child ; hav- 
ing then been inaugurated in His public office 
and work as the Messiah, by the descent 
upon Him of the Spirit as a dove at the Jor- 
dan, and by the voice from the heavenly glory, 
saying, " This Is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased, hear ye Him;" having also 
overcome in that dire temptation, to which 
as the second Adam, He was subjected at the 
outset of His course; having, moreover, shed 
the true light upon men by means of His 
simple yet marvellous teachings of grace and 
truth, and set before them the one perfect ex- 



TJie Coming Again. 25 

ample of a perfect life ; having likewise, 
through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself 
on Calvary without spot unto God, the ap- 
pointed sacrifice for the sins of men, and come 
forth alive again from the grave where weep- 
ing love laid Him, He ascended from the 
Mount of Olives, in divine array, to the glori-^ 
ous high throne of the Father. From thence 
He now exercises, invisibly to us, supreme and 
universal dominion ; for " The Lord said unto 
my Lord, sit Thou at* my right hand until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool." His next 
great Messianic manifestation is to be His 
return from that throne to this world, in 
glory and for judgment. 

ANCIENT INTIMATIONS. 

In the visions of the prophets, as already 
noted, the great events connected with the 
Messiah appeared to be grouped, having their 
place or time near together. Those which 
were the most remote crowded close upon 
those which were nearest. It is certain, how- 



26 The Blessed Rope. 

ever, that the saintly ones of the former dis- 
pensations were not without the essential 
truth. All the great characteristics of the 
two comings they had in clear view ; they did 
not have the true and full perspective. They 
saw the sufferings and they saw the glory ; 
they did not see the momentous and pro- 
longed interval between them. They had the 
precious substance of the truth, without its 
chronology ; we have the chronology and the 
substance. It cannot be without interest or 
spiritual use to mark how from the beginning 
the second coming of the Messiah has been 
an essential part of the faith once for all de- 
livered to the saints. Like a line of living 
light, it has shone across the ages. 

BEFORE THE FLOOD. 

Go back to Eden. While Adam and Eve 
yet linger there, note that germinal promise. 
" He shall bruise thy head," said the Lord God 
to the serpent; i.e., in the dread conflict now 
jbegun He shall subject thee to utter and end- 



The Coming Again. 27 

less overthrow. The Lord has come once on 
the wings of love, and returned again to his 
Father s side ; but this conflict is still in pro- 
gress ; this victory is yet in the womb of the 
future. The battle will be ended and the vic- 
tory forever won only when the Lord shall 
again come in robes of judgment. (Gen. 3 : 15). 
Hearken also to Enoch, the seventh from 
Adam. What startling words he pours forth 
on the ears of his generation. " Behold," he 
cries, " the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
his saints to execute judgment on all the un- 
godly, and to convince all that are ungodly 
among them of all their ungodly deeds which 
they have ungodly committed, and of all their 
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have 
spoken against Him." This was not fulfilled by 
the flood. The Lord did not then come with 
myriads of His saints. Nor was it fulfilled by 
the birth in Bethlehem. Rejoicing angels were 
indeed there, but the Lord did not then come 
in judgment. He came to seek and to save the 
lost. The eye of Enoch was fixed upon the 



28 The Blessed Hope. 

second coming: "When the Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven, with His mighty- 
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance." So 
"Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and the 
brother of James," certifies ; and he therefore 
makes use of this prophecy to admonish all 
the ungodly now, " who turn the grace of God 
into lasciviousness, and deny the only Lord 
God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." 

TO THE PATRIARCHS. 

Come down the interval from Enoch to 
Abraham. Time and again he heard the 
voice of Jehovah, addressing to him words of 
counsel or of promise. Time and again he 
saw the Angel of Jehovah, in visible form 
and act. On some occasion, when or how 
is not revealed, he also saw the day of 
Christ. Our most gracious Saviour affirms it. 
What day of Christ? Perhaps the words 
were meant to cover the whole period bounded 
by the two comings. It is observable, how- 
ever, that in the usage of the New Testament 



TJie Coming Again. 29 

the day of Christ denotes, not the day of His 
weakness, but of His power; not the day of 
His sorrow, but of His joy ; not the day of 
His deep suffering and shame, when men 
mocked at Him, but of His glorious manifesta- 
tion, when they will cry, " Crown Him !" And 
most certain it seems that the vision of the 
patriarch embraced that still future time when 
this vast promise shall reach its fulfilment : 
"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth 
be blessed, because thou hast heard my voice." 
(i Cor. 1:9; Phil. 1:10; Gen. 22 : 18). 

From Beersheba cross the desert into Egypt. 
The aged Jacob is there, not only to see 
and be cared for by his long-mourned Joseph, 
but, also, in the purpose of God, to die. The 
mortal hour is visibly at hand. His sons 
gather at his couch. What gleams from above 
lighten that home in Goshen, and turn the 
death-scene into one of glory. What an apoca- 
lypse of things to come touching the tribes of 
Israel; and especially touching the promised 
seed ! The sceptre and the law, he cries, will 



30 The Blessed Hope. 

linger in Judah until Shiloh comes. This was 
fulfilled at the incarnation. But centuries be- 
yond this pass before the dying seer. Far 
down the track of time he sees the Redeemer 
— not crucified, but enthroned by the nations. 
This world-wide obedience ; this reverent and 
adoring homage are yet in the future. 

IN THE PSALMS. 

Listen also to David, the son of Jesse — the 
man who was raised up on high, the anointed 
of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist 
of Israel. Looking on Calvary, and personat- 
ing the Messiah, hear him cry : 

" The dogs have compassed me. 
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. 
They pierced my hands and my feet. 
I may tell all my bones. 
They look and stare upon me. 
They part my garments among them, 
And cast lots upon my vesture." (Psalms 22 : i6-i8)» 

Behold, however, another scene : 

" Why do the heathen rage, 
And the people imagine a vain thing? 
The kings of the earth set themselves. 



The Coming Again. 31 

And the rulers take counsel together, 

Against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying: 

Let us break their bands asunder. 

And cast away their cords from us. 

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; 

The Lord shall have them in derision, 

Then shall He speak unto them in His w^rath. 

And vex them in His sore displeasure. 

Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. 

I will declare the decree, 

The Lord hath said unto me, thou art my Son ; 

This day have I begotten Thee. 

Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for 

thine inheritance, 
And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.- 
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; 
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 

(Psalms 2 : 1-9). 

And when this work of judgment is past,. 
Behold the King ! 

" He shall have dominion from sea to sea, 

And from the river unto the ends of the earth. 

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him ; 

And His enemies shall lick the dust. 

The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents,. 

Yea, all kings shall bow down before Him. 

All nations shall serve him." 
" His name shall endure forever. 

His name shall be continued as long as the sun ; 

All men shall be blessed in Him; 

All nations shall call Him blessed." (Psalms 72 : 16-18)^ 



32 Tlie Blessed Hope. 

THROUGHOUT THE PROPHETS. 

Where can we find grander themes or sub- 
limer strains than In the writings of those ex- 
traordinary men the Hebrew prophets ? Nay, 
In all literature besides, where are their equals 
for thoughts that breathe and words that 
burn ? Not fable, not fiction, not the things 
which are seen and temporal, engage and en- 
gross them. Their sphere of mental sight and 
foresight is within the real ; the moral and 
spiritual ; the eternal. They tell of truth and 
righteousness ; of sin and judgment ; of the 
divine counsels and acts ; of the everlasting 
verities. Consult their pages with reference 
especially to the coming One. What surpass- 
ing scenes ! what contrasts of character and 
condition ! what intermingling of lights and 
shades ! Here what gloom ! there what glory ! 

ISAIAH. 

Turn to Isaiah the son of Amoz ; whose 
lips one of the cherubim touched with the liv- 
ing coal from off the altar. 



The First Coming. 33 

He set forth the humlHation of the Messiah, 
with the fulness and vividness almost of the 
Gospels. He saw Him as a child born ; as a 
tender plant out of dry ground, without form 
or comeliness ; His visage was so marred more 
than any man ; and His form more than the 
sons of men. He saw Him despised and re- 
jected by those whom He came to save ; a 
man of sorrows and familiar with grief; 
wounded for our transgressions, and bruised 
for our iniquities ; bearing thus that moun- 
tain-like burden which Jehovah laid upon Him. 
He saw Him taken from prison and from 
judgment ; brought as a lamb to the slaughter; 
cut off out of the land of the living, and hav- 
ing His grave with the wicked, and with the 
rich in His death. All this passed before the 
vision of the .prophet ; and all this became 
history at the first coming. 

But, note now another scene. Blending 
with this picture, or gleaming across its back- 
ground, what a strange contrast. The just 
now oppressed and slain One, becomes a 

4 



34 The Blessed Hope. 

mighty King. He puts on righteousness as a 
breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon 
His head. He Is glorious In His apparel and 
travels In the greatness of His strength. He 
treads the wine-press alone, and of the people 
there are none with Him. He treads them In 
His anger, and tramples them In His fury, and 
their blood Is sprinkled upon all His raiment. 
The day of vengeance Is In His heart, and the 
year of His redeemed Is come. Out of Zion 
goes forth the law, and the Word of the Lord 
from Jerusalem. The mountain of the Lord's 
house Is established In the top of the moun- 
tains, and exalted among the hills, and all the 
nations flow unto It. The moon is confounded 
and the sun is ashamed when the Lord of Hosts 
reigns in Mount Zion, and before His ancients 
gloriously. Can there be a doubt that all this 
is to be realized at the second coming ? (Isaiah 
53 : 1-9 ; 32 : i ; 59 • i7 ; 63 : 1-4 ; 2 : 2, 3 ; 24 : 
23-) 



The Coming Again. 35 

JEREMIAH. 

Jeremiah was the prophet of sorrow. His 
heart was broken within him, and his eyes ran 
down with tears because of the sins of his 
people, and the fearful desolation about to 
overwhelm them. His prophecies resound 
with no exulting joy in view of the first com- 
ing of the Messiah. He glances indeed at 
that scene In Ramah, and weeps aloud with 
Rachel weeping for her children, and would 
not be comforted, because each was not ; and 
then his vision sweeps down those long centu- 
ries, still in progress, of the dispersion and 
affliction of Israel and Judah. Were there 
ever sights more sad and woful.^ These cen- 
turies do, indeed, at length end ; and the 
prophet sees and hails the Divine Restorer. 
His plaintive harp vibrates with a song of glad- 
ness. Hear It. 

" Behold the days come salth the Lord, that 
I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and 
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall exe- 



36 The Blessed Hope. 



cute judgment in the earth. In His day Judah 
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; and 
this is His name whereby He shall be called, 
The Lord our righteousness. Therefore, be- 
hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they 
shall no more say, the Lord liveth which 
brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt ; 
but, the Lord liveth which brought up and 
which led the seed of the house of Israel, out 
of the North country; and from all the coun- 
tries whither I had driven them ; and they 
shall dwell in their own land." (Jer. 31 : 15 ; 

23- 5-8; Zl : 14-^7-) 

Mark the terms of this prophecy. They 
point as with a sunbeam to the Messiah in the 
day of His regal power. The facts of history 
compel us to the future for its fulfilment. Is 
the Messiah now a King .? So He is, but in- 
visibly to men, and disowned and rejected by 
them. Was there a return from Babylon } 
So there was ; but, at best, it was partial, and 
not to be compared with the exodus from 
Egypt, in numbers, or in the manifestations 



The Coining Again. 37 

of Jehovah's grace and might. Did the Mes- 
siah come by incarnation at Bethlehem ? So 
He did ; but, then Judah was not saved, nor 
did Israel dwell safely. They were over- 
shadowed and oppressed by the all-crushing 
power of Rome. The times of the Gentiles 
had begun their course. Through all the cen- 
turies since, Jerusalem has been trodden down 
of the Gentiles, and the Jews have been scat- 
tered over all the earth. It will continue to 
be so, both as to the Holy City, and the cove- 
nant land and people, until the times of the 
Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21 : 24.) 

EZEKIEL, 

Among the captives in Babylon, by the 
river of Chebar, was Ezekiel, a priest, the son 
of Buzi. Though later in the prophetic office 
than Jeremiah, he was like him deeply moved 
by the sins and the doom of his people. His 
visions of God, unique in form and largely 
impressed by the scenes around him, embrace 
in their reach some of the vast things of the 



38 The Blessed Hope. 

future. Plainly there fell upon his eye the 
light of the two comings. He saw the high- 
est branch of the highest cedar — a tender 
one — planted in the mountain of the height 
of Israel. He also saw the diadem taken from 
that profane and wicked prince, whose day 
was even then come, and after mighty over- 
turnines, eiven to Him whose rieht it is. He 
saw, moreover, not only a restoration from 
Babylon, but the restoration of the outcasts 
of Israel, and of the dispersed of Judah, out 
of all the countries where they are scattered ; 
when they shall no more be two nations, but 
one ; and one king shall be to them all ; and 
David shall be their king ; and they shall walk 
in the statutes and judgments of the Lord 
their God, and do them ; and He will make a 
covenant of peace with them, an everlasting 
covenant; and He will place them and multi- 
ply them, and set His sanctuary in the midst 
of them forevermore ; and God will be their 
God, and they shall be His people ; when 
also this great promise shall have its perfect ful- 



The Coining Again. 39 

filment, " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon 
you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthi- 
ness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 
A new heart also I will give you ; and a new 
spirit will I put within you ; and I will take 
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
will give you a heart of flesh." Likewise, in 
the visions of God, the prophet saw that won- 
derful symbolic temple into which the glory 
of the Lord came, by the way of the gate 
toward the East, and the glory of the Lord 
filled it ; and that equally wonderful symbolic 
city, whose name shall be Jehovah Shammah ; 
The Lord is there ! Where, either since or 
before the incarnation, has all this been 
realized ? Does it not remain to bless and 
glorify the future.^ (Ezek. 17: 22-24; -i • 
26; 37: 22-28; 39: 25; 43 : 4; 48: 35). 

DANIEL. 

When we turn to the man greatly beloved, 
illustrious as a statesman as well as a prophet, 
intimately conversant with secular as well as 



4:0 The Blessed Hope. 

sacred affairs, we find most definite views of 
Messiah the Prince, both in His weakness and 
in His power. Daniel saw the Anointed, the 
Christ in His first coming. He saw Him at 
the very crisis of His passion ; dying just when 
Israel would be expecting Him to reign ; cut off 
by a death of violence, not, indeed, for Himself. 
His death was a substitution and an expiation. 
It made an end of sins for all who put their 
trust in Him. It brought in for their pardon 
and complete salvation a righteousness, in its 
value without limit, and in its duration without 
end. But from this astonishIn(T scene on Cal- 

o 

vary the eye of the prophet glanced far for- 
ward. It fixed with intent gaze on the most 
distant future as yet revealed. Already the 
throne of David was fallen down with the fall 
of Zedekiah ; and it was to remain abased un- 
til the true Heir should come. Already had 
Ezekiel seen the glory of the Lord depart 
from the threshold of the temple, and from 
the midst of the city ; and Jerusalem was no 
more His dwelling place. The God of heaven 



The Coming Again. 41 

had turned to the Gentiles. He had given to 
Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, power, strength 
and glory. He had appointed him as the head 
of those great world-powers, which should 
continue for ages, and which were symbolized, 
as to character and succession, by a huge me- 
tallic image, shown to the monarch of Baby- 
lon in a vison of the night. Gentile supre- 
macy and the times of the Gentiles began 
with him. But lo ! this colossal image, sud- 
denly falls. A stone cut out of the mountain 
without hands — the stone of Israel, which 
the builders rejected — smites it, and destroys 
it. Not, however, let it be noted, at the first 
coming. That was the day of grace and 
truth, of divine sorrow and measureless love. 
The stone smites the image — not upon its 
head of gold ; nor upon its breast and arms of 
silver; nor upon its belly and thighs of brass ; 
nor upon its legs of iron ; but upon its feet of 
iron and clay. It smites it therefore when 
the fourth kingdom symbolized in the image 
has reached its last form and been divided in- 



42 The Blessed Hope. 



to ten kingdoms. In the days of these king- 
doms, and as we now know, in their last days, 
will the stone that smites them, break them 
in pieces, take their place, filling the whole 
earth, and the God of heaven set up a king- 
dom that shall be invincible and indestructible. 
Moreover, Daniel "Beheld, till the thrones 
were placed, and the Ancient of days did sit, 
whose garment was white as snow, and the 
hair of His head like wool; His throne was 
like the fiery flame, and his wheels as a burn- 
ing fire. A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before Him; thousand thousands 
ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times 
ten thousand stood before Him; the judg- 
ment was set and the books were opened." 
And then " Behold, one like the Son of Man, 
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to 
the Ancient of days, and they brought Him 
near before Him, and there was given Him 
dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages should serve 
Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, 



The Coming Again. 43 

which shall not pass away; and His kingdom 
that which shall not be destroyed." This 
fatal smiting of the great image ; this dread 
judgment before the Ancient of days, this 
glorious dominion of one like the Son of 
Man, still await historic realization. (Ezek. 
io:i8; II : 23 ; Dan. 9 : 24-26; 2: 31-45 I 

THE MINOR PROPHETS. 

In the minor prophets the essential facts 
are the same. Many a sacred ray shoots 
across their pages, revealing the Messiah at 
His first coming. 1 hey set forth His divine 
nature, and yet recognize him as the Son of 
David. They tell how the nations will be 
yearning, consciously or unconsciously for 
His advent, because of the miseries which are 
upon them. They point out where He will 
be born and within what period. They 
announce a messencrer to 2:0 before Him to 

o o 

prepare His way; and that He himself will 
suddenly come to His temple. They fore- 



44 The Blessed Hope. 

show His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, 
and that field of blood bought with the 
accursed price. They affirm that the sword 
of Jehovah will smite Him, though He is 
Jehovah's fellow, and that His little ones will 
be scattered. But they pass on from the first 
advent to the second. They see Him as a 
Priest upon His throne, and bearing the 
glory ; as standing and ruling in the majesty 
of the Lord God ; as gathering all nations into 
the valley of Jehosaphat, and pleading with 
them there for His heritage ; as roaring out of 
Zion, and uttering His voice from Jerus- 
alem, and then, though the earth and the 
heavens shake, as being the hope and the 
strength of His people ; as going forth to 
fight against the nations which encompass 
Jerusalem in array of battle ; as standing, in 
that day, upon the Mount of Olives, which is 
before Jerusalem on the east, and which shall 
then cleave In the midst toward the east and 
toward the west ; and they connect these 
stupendous transactions with that time when 



The Coming Again. 45 

the Lord God shall come with all His holy 
ones. How certain is it, that these prophets 
revealed amazing events not yet in history? 
(Mic. 5 : 2-4 ; Hag. 2 : 6-9 ; Zech. 6 : 9-13 ; 
11: 12-14; 13- 7; H- 3-4; Mai. 3: I.) 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

It is not, hov/ever, until after the first com- 
ing, and we see in the clearer and fuller light 
of the New Testament, that we gain the com- 
pleted view of the second coming. The New 
Testament has its living root, and its majestic 
trunk and branches in the Old. The Old 
Testament has its rich and divine flower and 
fruit in the New. They are not two separate 
trees of life from the heavenly Paradise ; they 
are one and the same tree ; planted, and from 
first to last cultured and vivified by the one 
eternal spirit of God. The Old Testament 
foretold the Messiah as to come, and shad- 
owed forth the essential qualities of His per- 
son, character, office, work, and kingdom. In 
the New Testament the Messianic prophecy 



46 The Blessed Hope. 

culminates In visible and marvellous history. 
We have the record of the coming, and of 
Him who came. Where before there was 
only outline, or, at most, grouping without 
perspective, there are details, and the true 
relations and proportions, and clearer and 
fuller vision of the yet future. It is In this 
light, therefore, we reach the truth in its com- 
pleteness, which, in its substance, was the 
heritage of the saints from the beginning. 

, SEEMING FAILURE. 

After a life of about thirty-three years 
among men, a life that has no parallel for its 
beneficence, and for its moral beauty and 
power — the Messiah, or Jesus Christ, was, by 
wicked hands, crucified and slain. What an 
astonishing event! Instead of honor, men 
covered Him with ignominy. Instead of 
power, He fell, apparently helpless, before 
His enemies. Instead of a world-wide sceptre 
and a glorious throne, as the prophets sung, 
He went suddenly to the grave, and the grave 



The Corning Again. 4T 

of one charged with crime. What wonder if 
the Scribes and Pharisees exulted over His 
death, and thought that was the end of Him. 
What wonder if His Httle band of disciples 
was utterly cast down. Certainly, there was 
this obvious alternative ; either the long 
series of prophecies which went before on the 
Messiah had largely failed, or He must come 
again. An intelligent faith would embrace 
the latter conclusion. To such a faith, that 
which had taken place, so exact and amaz- 
ing, would render most certain, the complete 
fulfilment of that which remained. As He 
had come and endured all the suffering, sooner 
or later the glory must follow. 

DIVINE SOLUTION. 

Our blessed Lord gave intimations of this 
truth at an early period of His ministry. 
From time to time afterward, as the disciples 
were able to bear it, He made it known to 
them plainly. " Nevertheless," He said, 
" When the Son of Man cometh, shall He 



48 



The Blessed Hope. 



find faith on the earth ? " But the Son of 
Man was then with them. His words, there- 
fore, implied that he was to go away, and 
come again. Again He said, " When the Son 
of Man shall come in His glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, then shall He sit upon 
the throne of His glory." (Matt. 25: 31). 
The Son of Man was there and then present, 
but in a most humble condition. His words 
therefore teach that he would come again and 
be known and seen in His power and glory as 
a king. And so again : *' For the Son of Man 
shall come in the glory of his Father, with 
His angels, and then shall he reward every 
man according to his works." (Matt. 16: 27). 
And still again : " In the regeneration," i. e., 
in the new world which is to be, " When the 
Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His 
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. 
19: 28.) Before the death of our Lord, every 
doubt as to this matter was dissipated, and 
the disciples were looking forward to the 



The Coming Again, 49 

second coming. When, therefore, a few days 
before His passion, He sat on the Mount 
of Olives ■ with the forsaken and doomed 
Jerusalem in view, they came to Him with 
the question : " What shall be the sign of thy 
coming; and of the end of the world?" In 
reply, He uttered that momentous prophecy, 
which still stands as a beacon light to the 
Church and the world, and in which He again 
declared, " Then shall appear the sign of the 
Son of Man, and then shall all the tribes ot 
the earth mourn ; and they shall see the Son 
of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with 
power and great glory." (Matt. 24: 3-10). 

RESULT. 

It Is plain from all this that there Is to be a 
second coming of the Lord, and that this will 
iill up all the foreshowing of prophecy as to 
His kingly character and dominion, just as 
His first coming has filled up all the foreshow- 
ing of prophecy as to His being a servant and 
a sacrifice. In the divine order the cross was 

8 



50 The Blessed Hope. 

to be first ; and then, and because of it, the 
crown. This order was a necessity. " Ought 
not Christ to have suffered these things, He 
said, and to enter into His glory?" and the 
heart of those sad ones on the way to Em- 
maus burned within them as they heard Him. 
And so again, on the evening of the Res- 
surrection day. He said to the eleven as they 
were gathered together : " These are the 
words which I spake unto you, while I was 
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled 
which were written in the law of Moses, and 
in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concern- 
ing Me. Then opened He their under- 
standing, that they might understand the 
Scriptures, and said unto them. Thus it is 
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, 
and to rise from the dead on the third day." 
See those eager disciples! How their souls 
catch and fire at the words : " Rise from 
the dead on the third day ! " Surely it will be 
to reign ! He will then come in His glory ! 
He will then, by great acts of power and 



The Coming Again. 51 



judgment, overwhelm those who just now 
rejected and crucified Him, and establish, 
visibly, His mighty kingdom ! No, ye loving 
and adoring ones. The time is not yet. I 
have died, and I have come back from the 
dead, not now to appear in My glory, but that 
repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in My name among all the nations, 
beginning at Jerusalem !" There must be an 
interval of patience and mercy. There must 
be the offer everywhere of the blood-bought 
salvation. There must be the breaking down 
of the middle wall of partition which has 
stood between the Jews and Gentiles for so 
many ages. There must be the blessed 
ministrations of the Almighty Spirit, to effect 
upon men of all races and all climes, the 
gracious purposes of God in His redeeming 
Son. There must be the gathering, along 
successive generations, of that great multitude 
which no man can number, out of all nations 
and kindreds, and peoples and tongues, to 
stand, at length, as conquerors, robed and 




52 The Blessed Hope. 

crowned, before the throne of God and of the 
Lamb ! 

UNTIL HE COME. 

Without doubt It was a difficult thing for 
the disciples to adjust their feelings to this 
fuller revelation. Their love to the person of 
the Saviour had become most tender and 
strong, how could they then bear that He 
should go away from them and remain } In 
their most sacred beliefs and hopes until now 
they had held the suffering and the glory of 
the Messiah to be in close connection, how 
could they then without a struggle, give up 
these beliefs and hopes, and see the Name 
above all Names still contemned and dis- 
honored among men } As the dreaded hour 
of separation drew nigh they instinctively 
shrank from it. On the night of the Last 
Supper sorrow filled their hearts. When at 
the table the divine Master said : " This is My 
body which is given for you ; do this in 
remembrance of Me ; " and also, " This cup is 



The Coining Again. 53 

the New Testament in My blood, which is 
shed for many, for the remission of sins," 
who can conceive what thoughts and feelingrs 
swept through their souls ! But in the dark- 
ness a light arises. If the blessed One ordains 
the Supper for a memorial, He also ordains 
it for a pledge and a prophecy. If it tells 
them of His sacrifice, it also tells them of His 
triumph. Along the coming time, it will indeed 
point back to Mount Calvary, but it will also 
point forward to Mount Zion. He made it, 
there and then, to herald the hope of the 
Church till he come ! Then followed those 
wondrous discourses. Did mortals ever before 
listen to such thoughts and truths ? Their 
beauty, spirit, power, must have made that 
upper room like heaven. To cheer them in 
their sadness He said: " I tell you the truth ; 
it is expedient for you that I go away ; for if 
I go not away the Comforter will not come 
unto you ; but, if I depart I will send Him 
unto you, and when He is come, He will 
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, 



54 The Blessed Hope. 

and of judgment." " He shall glorify Me, for 
He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it 
unto you," To quicken their hope, and nerve 
them for the coming labor and conflict, He 
said: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye 
believe in God, believe also in Me. In my 
Father's house are many mansions, if it were 
not so, I would have told you. I go to pre- 
pare a place for you. And, if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and 
receive you unto Myself, that where I am, 
there ye may be also ! " Presently, they left 
that sacred chamber. They crossed over the 
brook Cedron. They went into Gethsemane, 
and some of them witnessed the agony there. 
On the morrow they saw Him hang in pain 
and death on the tree ! but, those stirring 
words, " I will come again !" sounded on like 
a trumpet. In the Acts ; in the Epistles; in 
the Apocalypse, they ring out, at every now 
and then, as a loud voice from heaven, to 
rouse and urge onward the sacramental host ; 
and when the Word of God closes its last 



Tlie Coming Again. 55 

accents are the solemn cry of the Bridegroom, 
"Surely I come quickly: Amen!" with the 
yearning response of the Bride, " Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus ! " 

"The Church has waited long 

Her absent Lord to see ; 
And still in loneliness she waits, 

A friendless stranger she. 
Age after age has gone, 

Sun after sun has set, 
And still in weeds of widowhood. 

She weeps a mourner yet. 

We long to hear Thy voice. 

To see Thee, face to face, 
To share Thy crown and glory then, 

As now we share Thy grace. 
Should not the loving Bride 

The absent Bridegroom mourn? 
Should she not wear the weeds of grief 

Until her Lord return ? 

The whole creation groans 

And waits to hear Thy voice. 
That shall restore her comeliness 

And make her wastes rejoice. 
Come, Lord, and wipe away 

The curse, the sin, the stain ; 
Come, make this blighted world of ours 

Thine own fair world again ! " 



WHEN WILL IT BE ? 



WHEN WILL IT BE? 



'' Looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appear- 
ing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.^' — 
Tit. 2: 13. 



From heaven when Christ came down of old, 
He took our nature poor and low ; 

He wore no form of angel mould, 

But shared our w^eakness and our woe. 

But, when He cometh back once more, 
Then shall He set His glorious throne, 

And earth and heaven shall flee before 
The face of Him who sits thereon. 

O ! Son of God, in glory crowned, 

The Judge ordained of quick and dead ; 

O ! Son of man, so pitying found, 
For all the tears Thy people shed ; 

Be with us in that awful hour, 

And by Thy crown and by Thy grave, 

By all Thy love and all Thy power. 
In that great day of judgment, save ! " 



A GLANCE at the circumstances which 
^ ^ will attend and signalize the second 
coming of the Lord, may fitly precede the 



60 The Blessed Hope. 

consideration of its time. They will be seen 
to be, as set forth by the Spirit of God 
through the evangelists and the apostles^ 
ineffably grand and impressive. 

THE SAME JESUS. 

Observe the identity of the Person. It is 
He who was born in Bethlehem ; who died on 
Calvary; and who ascended from the Mount 
of Olives. " This same Jesus," said the angelic 
ones, " which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen 
Him go into heaven." (Acts i : ii). 

VISIBLY. 

He will come visibly. " Behold, He cometh 
with clouds, and every eye shall see him ; and 
they also which pierced Him; and all the 
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of 
Him. Even so. Amen." (Rev. i : 7). 

SUDDENLY. 

He will come suddenly, when men do not 
expect Him. " For, as the lightning cometh 



When will it he? 61 

out of the east and shineth even unto the 
west, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
Man be." " And as It was in the days that 
were before the flood, they were eating and 
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, 
until the day that Noah entered the ark, and 
knew not until the flood came, and took them 
all away, so shall also the coming of the 
Son of Man be." (Matt. 24: 27-37-39). 

IN GLORY. 

He will come in most glorious array. 
"' Hereafter, ye shall see the Son of Man 
sitting on the right hand of power, and 
cominof in the clouds of heaven." " When 
the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and 
all the holy angels with Him, then shall He 
sit upon the throne of His glory." " For the 
Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
Father, with His angels, and then He shall 
reward every man according to his works." 
^* And He shall send forth His angels with a 
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 



62 The Blessed Hope. 

gather His elect from the four winds, from 
one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. 17 : 
27; 24: 31 ; 25: 31 ; 26: 64). 

WITH RESURRECTION POWER. 

He will come exercising His divine power 
of resurrection. " The Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout ; with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God ; and the dead In Christ shall rise first," 
"they that are Christ's at His coming." 
" Then we which are alive and remain " — 
" changed in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trump " — " shall be caught 
up together with them to meet the Lord in 
the air, and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord." (i Cor. 15: 23, 51; i Thess. 4: 
16-17). 

FOR JUDGMENT. 

He will come as the righteous Judge and 
King, " to give every man according as his 
work shall be ; " " tribulation to them that 



When will it he f 65 



trouble you ; and to you who are troubled 
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be 
revealed from heaven, with His mighty 
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God, and that obey not 
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord and from the 
glory of His power, when He shall come to be 
glorified in His saints, and to be admired in 
all them that believe/' (Rev. 22: 12; 
2 Thes. 6 : 6-10). 

How overpowering will be these scenes ! 
What an infinite contrast between them and 
those of the first coming ! Will not every 
beholder be impelled to cry — 

" Can this be He ! once wont to stray 
A pilgrim on the world's highway ; 
By power opprest, and mocked by pride ; 
The Nazarene ! the Crucified ! " 

THE TIME. 

When will the Lord thus come again ? 
It is an inquiry, not only natural, but also 



64: The Blessed Hope. 

becoming and right. A true interest in the 
great event itself will inevitably awaken a like 
interest as to its time. Those holy men of 
God, therefore, who spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost, searched 
diligently, even as those who search for 
gold, to learn what time, as well as what 
manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which 
was in them did signify, when it testified 
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glory that should follow, (i Pet. i : ii.) 
They searched, indeed, within the limits of 
the divine revelation. For any mortal to 
pass beyond those limits is as irreverent 
as it is in vain. 

ABSOLUTE TIME. 

Of the absolute time of the second com- 
ing we know nothing. God has revealed 
nothing. The times and the seasons are in 
His own power. Almost at the close of His 
ministry on the earth, the Saviour said : " Of 
that day and that hour knoweth no man ; no, 



When will it he? 65 



not the angels which are in heaven ; neither 
the Son"; z. e., in His character and office as 
the divine-human Mediator, " but the Father." 
This is still true of all men. It is probably 
still true of all angels. If the Son has now 
this knowledge, He has not revealed it. In 
the Gospels, in the Acts, and in the Epistles, 
all of which have been given to the Church 
since He spoke these words, and all of which 
shed a fuller light than before shone on the 
events to come, there is no exact determina- 
tion of the time. Nor from the Apocalypse, 
that wondrous book, which closes the super- 
natural record, and " which God gave unto 
Jesus Christ, to show unto His servants 
things which must shortly come to pass," can 
we learn at what hour or on what day the 
Son of Man will come. 

RELATIVE TIME. 

Of the relative time, however, of the 
second coming, the Church has knowledge. 
It has pleased the Father to cast some of the 



m The Blessed Bojpe. 



rays of that light which proceeds from His 
throne, upon, at least, its place in the order of 
the divine counsels. We know that the Son 
of Man came in the manner and at the time 
foretold by the prophets ; and that men did 
unto Him whatsoever they would. We know 
that we are living in the last days and under 
the immediate ministration of the Holy 
Spirit. We know that these days are now 
far on in their course, so that, on the scale of 
divine, and probably, of human measurement, 
the end is ni^h. We know that the next 
great predicted event in the unfolding future, 
and relative to the Messianic kingdom, is 
the manifestation of the Son of God in glory 
and to reign. 

THE MILLENNIUM. 

Some, indeed, will ask, must not the millen- 
nium intervene? The Scriptures do not 
teach that it must ; but, apparently they teach 
the reverse. What is the millennium .^ The 
word itself is made up of two Latin words, 



When will it hef 67 

and means, literally, a thousand years. A 
thousand years are a millennium. In Rev. 
20: 1-7, the beloved John uses this word in its 
Greek form to denote a most signal and glori- 
ous period in the history of the Church to be 
realized in the future. If we read his state- 
ments, using the word millennium, instead of 
translating it, it may serve to render more 
clear and definite our views of His meaning. 

" And I saw an angel come down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit 
and a great chain in his hand. And he laid 
hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which 
is the Devil and Satan and bound him a 
millennium, and cast him into the bottomless 
pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, 
that he should deceive the nations no more 
till the millennium should be fulfilled, and 
after that, he must be loosed a little season. 
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
and judgment was given unto them ; and I 
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for 
the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of 



The Blessed Hope. 



God, and which had not worshipped the beast, 
neither His image, neither had received his 
mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands ; 
and they Hved and reigned with Christ a 
millennium. But, the rest of the dead lived 
not again until the millennium w^as finished. 
This is the first resurrection. Blessed and 
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrec- 
tion ; on such the second death hath no power, 
but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, 
and shall reign with Him a millennium. And 
when the millennium is expired Satan shall be 
loosed out of his prison." 

ANALYSIS. 

Analysis of this interesting Scripture shows 
its essential points to be these, viz : 

T. The future embosoms a definite and most 
eminent period which is here called the mil- 
lennium. 

2. At the beginning of the millennium, Satan 
is to be bound, cast into the abyss and shut 



When will it he f 69 

up, so that he can deceive the nations no more, 
until the millennium is past. 

3. In connection with the binding and im- 
prisonment of Satan, the saintly dead, or the 
dead in Christ, are to live again. Their res- 
urrection is the first resurrection, or the resur- 
rection of the just, or the resurrection unto 
life. These risen dead are blessed and holy, 
and as priests of God and of Christ, they are 
to reign with Him during the millennium. 

4. The rest of the dead, z. e., those who are 
not dead In Christ, will not then live again. 
They will have no part In the first resurrection. 
They sleep on In their graves, and over them 
the second death will have power. 

5. At the close of the millennium, Satan is 
to be let loose again for a little season. 

Such is the origin of the term millennium. 
Such is the inspired view of the notable period 
which it designates. Very naturally and doubt- 
less with truth, those glowing descriptions 
which the Scriptures elsewhere give of the 
future bliss and glory of the Church on earth, 



70 The Blessed Hope. 

are referred by most to the same period, and 
the word millennium is used to express their 
immense import. 

INSPIRED DESCRIPTIONS. 

In. this view of the Apocalypse, the casting 
down and repression of Satan, the presence 
and reign of Christ, and the living again and 
reigning with Him of His saintly ones, bring 
in the millennium, and constitute its most dis- 
tinctive and essential features. All its other 
blessed characteristics will unfold as the choice 
flower and fruit of the dominion of Christ 
and His saints. These characteristics are 
largely set forth by the revealing Spirit ; and 
especially in the pages of the ancient 
prophets. They form a picture of surpassing 
grandeur and beauty. Look at the delinea- 
tions which follow. 

Daniel 7 : 13-16. 

" I saw in the night visions, and behold one 
like unto the Son of Man came with the clouds 



When will it he? Yl 

of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought Him near before Him. And 
there was given Him dominion and glory and 
a kingdom that all people, nations and 
languages should serve Him ; His dominion 
is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass 
away, and His kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed." 

David, Ps. 2 : 7-10. 

' Yet have I set iny King upon my holy hill of Zion. 
I will declare the decree ; 

The Lord hath said unto me, thou art My son ; 
This day have I begotten thee. 
Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for thine 

inheritance, 
And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. 
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 

Isaiah 25 : 6-9. 

" And in this mountain shall the Lord of 
Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things ; 
a feast of wines on the lees ; of fat things full 
of marrow ; of wines on the lees well refined. 
And He will destroy in this mountain the face 



n The Blessed Hope 

of the covering cast over all people, and 
the vail that is spread over all nations. He 
will swallow up death in victory ; and the 
Lord God will wipe away tears from all 
faces ; and the rebuke of His people shall He 
take away from off all the earth ; for the 
Lord God hath spoken it. And it shall be 
said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; we have 
waited for Him ; we will be glad and rejoice 
in His salvation." 

Isaiah 2 ; 2-6. 

" And it shall come to pass in the last days, 
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall 
be established in the top of the mountains, 
and shall be exalted above the hills, and all 
nations shall flow unto it. And many people 
shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to 
the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the 
God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His 
ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out 
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall 



When will it be? 73 



judge among the nations, and shall rebuke 
many people ; and they shall beat their swords 
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning 
hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword against 
nation, neither shall they learn war any more." 

Isaiah 35 : 3-10. 

" Strengthen ye the weak hands, and con- 
firm the feeble knees. Say ye to them that 
are of a fearful heart — Be strong, fear not. 
Behold your God will come with vengeance, 
even God with a recompense. He will come 
and save you. Then the eyes of the blind 
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap 
as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall 
sing ; for in the wilderness shall waters break 
out, and streams in the desert. And the 
parched ground shall become a pool, and the 
thirsty land springs of water ; in the habita- 
tion of dragons, where each lay, shall be 
grass with reeds and rushes. And an high- 
way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be 



74 The Blessed Hope. 



called, the way of holiness : the unclean 
shall not pass over It; but it shall be for those ; 
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not 
err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any 
ravenous beast shall go up thereon ; it shall 
not be found there ; but the redeemed shall 
walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and come to Zion with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall 
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sigh- 
ing shall flee away." 

Isaiah 60 : 15-22. 

" Whereas thou hast been forsaken and 
hated, so that no man went through thee, 
I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy 
of many generations. Thou shalt also suck 
the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the 
breast of kings, and thou shalt know that I 
the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, 
the mighty one of Jacob. For brass I will 
bring gold ; and for iron I will bring silver ; 
and for wood, brass ; and for stones, iron. I 



When will it he? 75 

will also make thy officers peace, and thine 
exactors righteousness. Violence shall no 
more be heard in thy land, wasting nor de- 
struction within thy borders, but thou shalt 
call thy walls, salvation, and thy gates, 
praise. The sun shall no more be thy light 
by day ; neither for brightness shall the moon 
give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be 
unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God 
thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down ; 
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for 
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and 
the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 
Thy people also shall be all righteous ; they 
shall inherit the land forever, the branch of 
my planting, the work of my hands, that I may 
be glorified. A little one shall become a 
thousand, and a small one a strong nation. 
I the Lord will hasten it in its time." 

Isaiah 65 : '17-25. 

" For behold, I create new heavens, and a 
new earth; and the former shall not be 




76 The Blessed Hope. 

remembered, nor come into mind. But, be 
ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I 
create ; for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoic- 
ing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice 
in Jerusalem and joy in my people ; and the 
voice of weeping shall be no more heard in 
her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be 
no more thence an infant of days, nor an old 
man that hath not filled his days ; for the 
child shall die an hundred years old ; but the 
sinner being an hundred years old shall be 
accursed. And they shall build houses and 
inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, 
and eat the fruit of them. They shall not 
build, and another inhabit ; they shall not 
plant and another eat ; for as the days of a 
tree are the days of my people and mine elect 
shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth 
for trouble ; for they are the seed of the 
blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with 
them. And it shall come to pass, that before 
they call, I will answer ; and while they are 



When will it he? YT 



yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the 

lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall 

eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be 

the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor 

destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the 

Lord." 

Isaiah 24 : 23. 

" Then the moon shall be confounded, and 
the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts 
shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem 
and before His ancients gloriously." 

Such are some of the delineations of the 
prophets. In this way do they depict that 
illustrious period when there shall be given 
unto One like the Son of Man, dominion and 
glory and a kingdom. The transcendent 
vision has kindled the faith and hope of ages 
in the past. It exerts now a divine power. 
When men see it turning from prophecy into 
history they will see the millennium. 

VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 

" Know ye not that ye are the temple of 
God," wrote Paul to the Christians in Corinth, 



Y8 The Blessed Rope. 

" and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?" 
(i Cor. 3 : i6). It is a glorious truth, the 
Spirit of God dwells in the people of God. 
But let there be no mistake here. This 
indwelling of the Spirit is not for the purpose 
of new revelations of truth ; it is that the 
saints may have clearer light upon the truth 
already revealed, and that thus they may grow 
up into completer holiness. In proportion as 
they are faithful and pure they will have the 
light of God, and with joy they will walk In 
it. In the matter of Christian doctrine, there- 
fore, the general sense of the Church ought to 
have a special value. If the Church were 
perfect, the creed of the Church would be 
the truth. It is, however, a modifying and 
damaging fact, that the Church is not perfect. 
Very far from it. From the beginning, Satan 
has assiduously sown his tares among the 
good seed of God, and with most sad results. 
The test of truth, therefore, is not the voice of 
the Church, but the voice of the Bible. " To 
the law and the testimony : if they speak not 



When will it he? 79 

according to this word It is because there is 
no light in them." (Isaiah 8 : 20). 

PRIMITIVE VIEW. 

In the apostoHc and primitive Church, it. is 
certain that for more than three centuries the 
second coming of Christ was expected to take 
place before the millennium, and that the bliss 
and glory of that period would flow from His 
presence and reign. Especially was this so 
while Paganism still held the seat of power, 
and the Church was despised and persecuted. 
Most keenly did she then feel the sorrows of 
widowhood and long for the return of her 
absent Lord. That return would bring the 
day of her redemption and joy. When, how- 
ever, Constantine mounted the throne, and 
the Church with him, her spirit and her faith 
changed. Favor with men, and increasing 
flatteries, honors, wealth and power, made the 
world seem less barren, and more attractive. 
Gradually, but surely, the blessed hope gave 
way to the power of present possession and 



80 The Blessed Hope. 

enjoyment; the once desolate widow became 
elated, proud, and self-sufficient : and she said 
in her heart, " I sit as a queen, and shall have 
no sorrow." For many generations, it would 
have been the dread of the visible church to 
have the Lord come. 

AFTER THE REFORMATION. 

The churches of the Reformation were 
brought into being by the Spirit through that 
most vital truth — justification by faith. This 
engaged their profoundest thought and 
stirred their deepest feeling. It was, in their 
view, the very citadel of the whole Christian 
cause. In some less vital things, their 
emancipation from Rome was less complete. 
As to the second coming of the Lord, they 
did not return wholly to the first faith. In 
here and there an instance, this faith gained a 
place in the Confessions, but the general view 
referred those Scriptures which portray the 
future dominion and glory of the Church to 
the state beyond the last judgment ; z. e., to 



When will it lef 81 

the heavenly and the eternal state. It inter- 
posed no millennium before the glorious re- 
turn of the Saviour. On the contrary, it held 
that return to be nigh, even at the door ; 
but it also held, that it would bring with it 
the end of all earthly things. Many indeed, 
of the great theologians of Westminster were 
express millennarians ; the most of the chief 
men among them. They looked first for 
Christ to come, and then for His glorious 
kingdom. But none in that notable Assembly 
knew anything of a latter day of glory to the 
Church on earth before the coming of the 
Lord. They close, therefore, their grand Con- 
fession with the ringing words : " Christ will 
have that day unknown to men, that they may 
shake off all carnal security, and be always 
watchful, because they know not what hour 
the Lord will come; and may be ever pre- 
pared to say. Come, Lord Jesus, come 

quickly. Amen ! " 



82 The Blessed Hope. 



MODERN IDEAS. 

Those ideas touching the millennium, both 
as to its character and time, which have been 
generally current within the last century, seem 
to have originated with Dr. Daniel Whitby. 
Certainly he gave them form and gained for 
them attention. Diligent inquirers have not 
been able to trace them to any previous 
source. By generalizing and spiritualizing 
means and processes ; proper, doubtless, in 
their due place and measure, he reached the 
conclusion that Christ, who was once offered 
to bear the sins of many, will not appear the 
second time without sin unto salvation, until 
after the millennium ; and that this most 
signal period in the history of the Church 
will be the natural 'and gradual result of the 
intellectual and spiritual agencies now in 
existence and operation. The Gospel, 
especially, will be more and more widely 
preached among the nations ; and the nations 
will become more and more subject to its 



When loill it he f S3 

pervasive and elevating influence, until, like 
leaven. Its sacred force will reach, and more 
or less mould the whole mass. This was 
also, and essentially, the view of President 
Edwards, only he gave more prominence to 
the work of the Holy Spirit, and His extra- 
ordinary manifestations. The great name of 
Edwards was, deservedly, a power at home 
and .abroad. Sanctioned by so grand a soul, 
this modern view has taken strong hold upon 
the Church of the present. The result is, 
that the Bride Is looking and longing, not 
for the coming of the Bridegroom, which she 
even denies to be as yet possible ; but, for 
the coming of the millennium ; a millennium 
to be realized by means of her own doing, 
and a millennium without the Bridegroom 
and the King. At times, she is confident that 
she sees the first rays of its glory gilding the 
mountain tops. 



84 Hie Blessed Hope. 



THE TRUE WITNESSES. 

Where, then, is the truth? In the Word of 
God ; and, with regard to this matter, only 
there. No mere data or process of human 
reason can furnish its solution. It belongs to 
the domain of revealed truth. If God has 
made known the relation of the second com- 
ing of his Son to the latter day of glory, we 
must find the knowledge, In the testimony of 
His witnesses In the Old and the New Testa- 
ments. Let us cite some of these witnesses. 
Let us reverently consider their testimony. 
" The words of the Lord are pure words ; as 
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 
seven times." (Ps. 12: 6). "Every word of 
God Is pure." (Prov. 30: 5). 

Isaiah 2 5 : 6-9. 
Listen : 

" In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make 
unto all people a feast of fat things ; a feast of wine 
on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on 
the lees well refined. And He will destroy in this 
mountain the face of the covering cast over all 



When will it l)ef So 

people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. 
He will swallov;^ up death in victory ; and the Lord 
God v^ill wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the 
rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all 
the earth ; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall 
be said in that day: Lo, this is our God ; we have 
waited for Him, and He will save us ; this is the 
Lord ; we have waited for Him ; we will be glad and 
rejoice in His salvation ! " 

Who can doubt that this prophecy relates 
to the times of the Messiah ? This mountain 
is Mount Zion. The essential preparation for 
this notable feast was made by the Lord, 
at His first coming, in His life of perfect 
obedience, and by His death of atonement on 
Calvary. The overspreading vail is that thick 
covering, which, with reference to spiritual 
things, and by means of ignorance, error, and 
sin, Satan has thrown over our race. " The 
God of this world hath blinded the minds of 
them which believe not, lest the light of the 
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image 
of God, should shine unto them." (2 Cor. 4 : 
3, 4.) While this vail thus covers men, there 
can be no millennium. The Lord God, 
therefore, will destroy it ; and in connection 



86 The Blessed Hope. 



with this, or in doing it, He will swallow up 
death in victory. 

When will the Lord God do these great 
things? Let His own most Holy Spirit 
answer, through the blessed Paul. 

" Behold, I shew you a mystery. We shall not all 
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the 
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in- 
corruptible, and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
must put on immortality. So, when this corruptible 
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass 
the saying, that is written, Death is swallowed up in 
victory." (i Cor. 15: 51-55). 

What could be plainer 1 The Lord God 
will swallow up death in victory, when "the 
trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible." What dead 1 The 
apostle leaves no room for doubt. His 
magnificent discourse relates especially to the 
resurrection of the dead in Christ ; to those 
who, in their own order, live again at His 
coming. It is then, therefore, that He will 



When will it lef 8Y 



destroy the vail cast over the nations, and 
pour all abroad the light and glory of the 
millennium. 

Daniel 2 : 31-45. 
Again, listen : 

" Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a great image. 
This great image, whose brightness was excellent, 
stood before thee ; and the form thereof was terrible. 
This image's head was of fine gold ; his breast and 
his arms of silver ; his belly and thighs of brass ; his 
legs of iron ; his feet part of n'on and part of clay. 
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without 
hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were 
of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was 
the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, 
broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff 
of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried 
them away, that no place was found for them ; and 
the stone that smote the image became a great moun- 
tain, and filled the whole earth." 

INTERPRETATION. 

The prophet now interprets. In this vision 
God has made known what shall come to pass 
hereafter. The great Image is a symbol. In 
Its form and materials it represents four 
mighty kingdoms of this world. They are to 



^8 The Blessed Hope. 



arise, each after the other, and gain wide 
dominion. The first Is the Babylonian, then 
existing. This statement by the prophet 
renders It certain that the other three king- 
doms are the Medo-Persian, the Macedonian 
and the Roman. When the fourth kingdom 
" strong as Iron," shall reach a specified stage 
In Its history, the stone cut out without 
hands shall smite the Image and destroy It ; 
and Itself will become the world-filling and 
world-ruling power; or, "the God of heaven 
will then set up a kingdom which shall never 
be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, but It shall break In 
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and It 
shall stand forever." 

The prophet does not explain the Import of 
the stone. It was not necessary. It denotes 
either " the stone of Israel," rejected by men 
but "chosen of God and precious," or. His 
Messianic kingdom. Nor does the prophet 
determine here the exact time of this king- 
dom. In the vision Itself, however, there are 



When will it he? 89- 

some interesting and conclusive data. The 
stone is not to smite and destroy the image, 
while the fourth kingdom exists in its unity, 
as it did at the first coming of Christ ; nor 
yet while it exists in its twofold division, as it 
did in the Eastern and Western empires, re- 
presented by the legs of iron ; but, while it 
shall be existing in its tenfold division, as re- 
presented by the feet and toes of iron and 
clay. The stone will smite upon these, and, 
destroying the kingdoms which they repre- 
sent, will bring in their place that kingdom 
which cannot be destroyed. Demonstrably, 
therefore, this smiting and this kingdom are 
yet in the future. At what point in the 
future } Let the man greatly beloved answer, 
in another vision, which he himself saw. 

" I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like 
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven ; and 
came to the Ancient of days ; and they brought Him 
near before Him. And there was given Him 
dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 
nations and languages should serve Him ; His 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not 
pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be 
destroyed." (Dan. 7 : 12-14). 



90 The Blessed Hope. 

How impressive is this divine view. How 
clear the conclusion which it compels. The 
smiting of the terrible image upon its feet 
and toes, by the stone ; the destruction of the 
kingdoms of this world, which these feet and 
toes symbolize, by this smiting ; and the set- 
ting up in their place of that kingdom which 
shall be everlasting, are plainly contempora- 
neous events. But this kingdom will be set 
up, or given to One like the Son of Man, not 
until He comes with the clouds of heaven ; 
i. €., at the second coming of Christ. Before 
that epoch, therefore, there can be no millen- 
nium. 

Daniel 7 : 2-27. 

Hear again the heavenly witness. In this 
Scripture, we have another prophetic vision. 
Widely different in form from that of the 
huge image, it has essentially the same im- 
port, only that, in connection with the latter 
days of the fourth kingdom, it adds some 
particulars of deep moment. The prophet 
beholds, coming up from the great sea, four 



When will it lef 91 

great beasts. The first of these beasts Is 
like a Hon, the second like a bear, the third 
like a leopard, and the fourth — not compared 
with any other — is exceedingly strong and 
terrible, and exercises Immense powers of 
destruction. The four great kingdoms set forth 
In the vision of the Image are symbolized 
here by these four beasts. The extraordinary 
fourth beast has ten horns. These horns 
symbolize a tenfold division of the fourth 
kingdom, just as was done by the ten toes of 
the image. Among these horns springs up 
another, a little horn, of a remarkable char- 
acter. It has eyes, like the eyes of a man ; a 
mouth speaking great things ; and It plucks 
up three of the first horns by the roots. 

The vision continues " until the thrones 
were placed, and the Ancient of days did sit, 
whose garment was white as snow, and the 
hair of His head like the pure wool. His 
throne was like the fiery flame, and His 
wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued 
and came forth from before Him ; thousand 



The Blessed Hope. 



thousands ministered unto Him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before 
Him. The judgment was set, and the books 
were opened." Up to the very moment of 
this overwhelming scene is heard " the voice 
of the great words which the horn spake." 
But, the judgment proceeds; the beast is slain 
and his body given to the burning flame ; the 
Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven, 
and is invested by the Ancient of days with 
the promised and glorious kingdom. 

INTERPRETATION. 

Divine manifestations awe men. The 
prophet was deeply impressed. His spirit 
was troubled within Him. What can this 
transcendent vision mean ? Especially did 
he desire to " know the truth of the fourth 
beast, so diverse from all the others, and 
exceedingly dreadful ; and of the ten horns 
that were in his head ; and of the other which 
came up, and before which three fell ; even of 
that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that 



When will it he? . ■ 93 

spake very great things ; whose look was 
more stout than his fellows; and the same 
horn that made war with the saints, and pre- 
vailed against them." This strong desire 
of the prophet was answered. " The fourth 
beast," said the interpreter, "shall be the 
fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be 
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall de- 
vour the whole earth, and tread it down and 
break it in pieces. And the ten horns out 
of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise ; 
and another shall rise after them, and he 
shall be diverse from the first, and he shall 
subdue three kings. And he shall speak 
great words against the Most High, and think 
to change times and laws. And they," i.e., 
the saints, " shall be given into his hand, until 
a time and times and the dividing of time." 

CONCLUSION. 

We have thus the elements of a true and 
great conclusion. The fourth beast symbolizes 
the fourth kingdom, i.e., the Roman. Its ten 



9^ .Tlie Blessed Hope. 



horns symbolize the fourth kingdom In Its 
state of tenfold division, which has existed 
now for centuries. The little horn, which 
comes up among the ten, and displaces three 
of them, symbolizes another kingdom, of a 
character without Its parallel for malignity 
and impiety. In the light of the past and the 
present, how can it be doubted that this horn 
points to the apostate Church — so ambitious 
of secular as well as ecclesiastical power, and 
exercising its power all along its course In 
bitter opposition to the truth and the cause of 
Christ 1 Where else since Constantine does 
there exist such a record of Iniquities and 
atrocities — for the repression and extirpation, 
not of evil, but of good ; or such an arroga- 
tion, by miserable men, of the honors and 
powers which belong only to God. Beyond 
any question, this horn designates some for- 
midable and relentless enemy of the saints of 
the Most High. And now, mark; It makes 
war with the saints, and prevails against them, 
and wears them out — how long? Until the 



When will it he? 95 

millennium ? The inspired answer is : until 
the Ancient of days shall come ; until judg- 
ment is given to the saints of the Most High ; 
until the time is come that the saints possess 
the kingdom ; all which events are here in- 
separably connected with the coming of the 
Son of Man with the clouds of heaven ; or, 
what is the same thing, His coming in the 
glory of His Father, with all the holy angels. 
There can be no millennium, therefore, before 
Christ's second coming. 

" Far down the ages now, 

Her journey well-nigh past ; 
The pilgrim Church fares on, in hope 
To reach the crown at last. 

No wider is the gate, 

No broader is the way, 
No smoother is the ancient path 

That leads to light and day, 

No slacker grows the fight, 

No feebler is the foe, 
No less the need of armor tried, 

Of shield and spear and bow. 

Nor less we feel the blank 

Of earth's still absent King, 
Whose presence is of all our bliss 

The everlasting spring." 



4^^ 



QUESTION OF TIME. 

{CONTINUED) 



(QUESTION OF TIME 

( CONTINUED) 



" Jesus saith unto him, ' Thou hast said ; nevertheless, I 
say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting 
on the right hand of power, and comifig ijt the clouds of 
heaven.'" — Matt. 26: 64. 



' How long, O ! Lord our Saviour, 

Wilt Thou remain away? 
Our hearts are growing weary 

Of thy so long delay ; 
O ! when shall come the moment, 

When brighter far than morn 
The sunshine of Thy glory 

Thy people shall adorn. 

How long, O ! Heavenly Bridegroom, 

How long wilt Thou delay? 
And yet hov/ few are grieving 

That Thou dost absent stay. 
The very Bride her portion 

And calling hath forgot, 
And seeks for ease and glory 

Where Thou, O ! Lord, art not. 



100 The Blessed Hope, 



O ! Wake thy slumbering virgins, 

Send forth the solemn cry, 
Let all thy saints repeat it, 

The Bridegroom draweth nigh. 
May all our lamps be burning, 

Our loins well girded be. 
Each longing heart preparing 

With joy Thy face to see." 



A S the witness of the New Testament 
^ -^ to the second comine of Christ is 
more full and definite than that of the Old 
Testament with reference to the orreat event 
itself and its accessories, so also it is as to 
its time. It does not, indeed, lift the vail 
from "that day and hour" when the Lord 
will come, but it pours a clear light on the 
divine order. In harmony with the witness of 
the Old Testament, it shows that the great 
day of the Lord, when He will come in the 
glory of His Father, and with the holy 
angels, will precede and usher in the millen- 
nium. Glance at some of its testimonies. 
Taken singly, they may appear more or less 



Question of Time — Continued. 101 

decisive. Taken together, they lay a solid 
foundation for Christian faith. 

ABSENCE OF THE BRIDEGROOM. 
(Matt. 9: 15.) 

John the Baptist was an ascetic. He came 
neither eating bread nor drinking wine. He 
was also a preacher of repentance, and en- 
joined fasting as a religious duty. Like the 
Pharisees, therefore, his disciples were wont to 
fast. It was meant to be an expressive, out- 
ward sign of strong, inward feeling; a sym- 
bolical confession of sin and sorrow ; of deep 
affliction of the soul. The disciples of Jesus 
did not fast. The fact was observed, and 
prompted the inquiry, " Why do we and the 
Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" 
How instructive and beautiful is the reply : 
" Jesus said unto them. Can the children of 
the bride-chamber mourn as longr as the Bride- 
groom is with them } " Certainly not. Well, 
I am the Bridegroom of the Church. And 
thus, as Alford points out, He " announces 



102 The Blessed Hope. 

the fulfilment in Him of a whole cycle of 
Old Testament prophecies and figures." And 
this being so, how could his disciples fast ? 
His personal presence with them precluded 
sorrow. It did so, even when they saw Him 
In the form of a servant, and their knowledge 
of Him and His sublime purposes was most 
Imperfect. Much more will it do this when 
He shall be present with them In His full 
array of divine beauty and power. " But," 
He added, " the days will come when the 
Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and 
then shall they fast." The evangelist Luke 
has It, " and then shall they fast, In those 
days," z. e., when and while the Bridegroom Is 
gone. The going away of the Bridegroom 
was, indeed, expedient ; but how the very 
thought of It depressed those first disciples. 
It would Itself be a great sorrow. It would 
also bring the season and the occasions for 
other sorrows. Then the world would renew 
its temptations ; then the flesh would stand 
disclosed In all Its weakness ; then Satan 



Question of Time — Continued. 103 

would redouble his infernal craft and power; 
then too, if ever, they would know by experi- 
ence of the great tribulation out of which all 
will come who shall stand before the throne 
of God and of the Lamb in the glory of con- 
querors. And how could they suppose the 
effect would be less permanent than its cause ? 
Or, how can we suppose this ? The fasting- 
time of the Bride is plainly commensurate 
with the absence of the Bridegroom ; unless* 
indeed, meanwhile, her love shall grow cold, 
and the Bride become an harlot. But this 
would call for still deeper sorrow. It would 
indicate anything else than the presence and 
glories of the millennium. Those days, there- 
fore, when the Bride shall fast because the 
Bridegroom is taken away, will continue until 
the Bridegroom returns. 

THE DECAY OF FAITH. 
(Luke i8: i-8). 

Add to this thought that touching question 
of the Lord in the parable of the unjust judge. 



104 The Blessed Hope. 

He would impress it upon men that they 
should always pray and not faint. He does 
this by showing us a widow bringing her suit 
before an earthly tribunal. The judge is one 
who does not care for either man or God. 
His office is his instrument of power and 
plunder. Time and again, therefore, he sends 
her from his presence without redress. She, 
however, will not be denied. She persists in 
urging and re-urging her case, until the wretch 
is compelled, by regard to his own ease, to 
vindicate her. Now, will not God, the infin- 
itely righteous Judge, and who also loves His 
people with an immeasurable love, hear and 
answer those who cry day and night unto 
Him.? Most assuredly He will, and that 
speedily. It may, indeed, sometimes seem 
to them long that He waits, but their trials 
and griefs shall be over and gone the first 
moment their own highest good will permit 
This the Scriptures certify, and this the ages 
have seen. If often the furnace has been ex- 
ceeding hot, the result in spiritual wealth 



Question of Time — Continued. 105 

and beauty has been correspondingly eminent. 
" Nevertheless," the Saviour proceeds to ask, 
" when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find 
faith on the earth ? " What a startling inquiry ! 
He will come again, but when He comes, what 
a spiritual condition of men ! It almost over- 
whelms one to think of it; but the import of 
the question is plain. Faith will have almost 
failed when the Son of Man shall come. And 
yet, the ideas now so current in the Church 
make this astounding and world-wide decay 
of faith follow at once upon the millennium ; 
i.e., upon the world-wide prevalence of truth, 
righteousness, peace, and all the extraordinary 
blessings and glories of the long-promised 
thousand years ! Is it conceivable "^ Is it 
possible? We can, indeed, see how faith in 
revealed truth may now fail. In fact, we see 
that it often does fail. In the visible Church 
itself there seems to be already more of un- 
belief than of faith. Large numbers of pro- 
fessedly Christian teachers find the ultimate 
authority in their own reason. Still larger 



106 The Blessed Hope. 

numbers of professedly Christian people de- 
light more in human folly than in the divine 
wisdom. It is not difficult to believe that in 
the last days perilous times will come by 
means of false philosophy, false science, false 
religion, and of the worldly spirit and unholy 
lives of those who ought to be the wit- 
nesses of God ; and that at the end of this dis- 
pensation it may be just as it was in the days 
before the flood. But, that the millennium 
should come and go and leave no trace 
behind ; that a period which the Scriptures 
clothe with more than the beauty and bright- 
ness of the sun ; whose demonstrations of 
truth will be overwhelming as they will be 
grand and glorious ; whose fruits of righteous- 
ness, peace, purity and abounding joy will 
make the earth again like heaven ; and during 
which "all men shall be blessed In Christ and 
all nations shall call Him blessed;" that such 
a period should end in one of almost utter 
darkness is incredible. For a little season. It 
is true, Satan will be loosed from his prison. 



Question of Time — Continued. 107 

He will then make another and most des- 
perate attempt against the saints and their 
mighty King. But with what result? Ap- 
parently with no result, except to deceive some 
of the then unconverted in the four quarters 
of the earth. Most assuredly there will be no 
want of faith then in the camp of the saints 
or in the beloved city. And when at length 
the great adversary and His embattled host 
are all ready for the onset, but before they 
seem to have struck a blow — fire comes down 
from God out of heaven and devours them. 
In the Bible view of the future there is no 
place after the millennium for so stupendous a 
descent, as the current ideas imply from uni- 
versal faith and holiness, to universal unbelief 
and impiety. If, when the Son of Man 
Cometh, He shall not find faith on the earth. 
His coming must be before the millennium. 

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES. 
(Matt. 13: 24-30). 

Glance also at the parable of the wheat and 
the tares. Clear and impressive by itself, it 



108 The Blessed Hope. 

is made specially so by a full interpretation 
from the Lord. The Son of Man sows His 
good seed in the visible Church, though, indeed, 
not exclusively there ; He sows them, more or 
less, through the whole world. He began this 
divine sowing in Eden. He has continued 
His gracious work from that day until now, 
and He will continue it until the probation of 
men is over. His great enemy, the devil, is 
determined to counteract His efforts, and 
frustrate, so far as possible, their beneficent 
results. Broadcast, but by stealth, he sows 
tares all over the same field. Presently, there- 
fore, appear, thoroughly intermingled, the 
genuine wheat and the noxious weeds — the 
children of the kingdom, and the children of 
the evil one. What now shall be done.^ 
Pluck up and cast away the tares } No, says 
the Master, " lest ye root up also the wheat 
with them. Let both grow together until the 
harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will 
say to My reapers, gather ye together first the 
tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. 



Question of Time — Continued. 109 

but gather the wheat into My barn." Verily 
His thoughts are not as our thoughts. But, 
Lord, who are the reapers } My holy angels 
who will attend Me when the harvest of the 
earth is ripe, and I come in My glory to reap 
it. (Rev. 14: 14; Matt. 25 : 31). And when, 
Lord, when shall the harvest be 7 The har- 
vest is the end of the world. The end of the 
world ! But, most gracious Master, can this 
be so } Are these pernicious tares — Is all this 
tangled mass of confusion and evil which they 
represent to continue until then.? Must not 
the latter day of glory shine upon this now 
wretched earth before Thy second coming — 
that day when all things that offend shall be 
cast out of Thy kingdom, and Thy people 
shall be all righteous, and the righteous shall 
shine forth as the sun } No ; replies the 
Master, let both grow together ; the wicked 
with the godly ; shameless hypocrites with 
true saints ; those who do Iniquity with those 
who follow the Lamb, until the harvest ; until 
the end of the world ; until the Son of Man 



110 The Blessed Hojpe, 

shall come with the clouds of heaven for judg- 
ment. '• Pregnant words," as Trench well says, 
"which tell us that evil is not, as so many 
dream, gradually to wane and disappear before 
the good, and the world to find itself in the 
Church ; but, each to unfold Itself more fully 
out of Its own root, after its own kind, till, at 
last they stand face to face, each in its highest 
manifestation In the persons of Christ and 
Anti-Christ ; on the one hand, an incarnate 
God ; or the other, the man in whom the ful- 
ness of all Satanic power will dwell bodily. 
Both are to grow until the harvest; till they 
are ripe, one for destruction, and the other for 
full salvation." 

THE NOBLEMAN AND HIS KINGDOM. 

(Luke 19 : 11-27.) 

In full harmony with this is that parable of 
a certain nobleman who went into a far 
country to receive for Himself a kingdom and 
to return. The Lord spoke it apparently 
when In the house of Zaccheus. It was on 



Question of Time — Contimted. Ill 

the week before His death. As on His 
journey, He drew nigh to Jerusalem, some of 
those who were with Him, thought the king- 
dom of God would immediately appear. Who 
could tell but when He reached the royal city, 
He would proclaim Himself the Messiah, the 
mighty King.^ It was a grave error. Unless 
dissipated it would work evil. Many most 
essential and wonderful things must take place 
before His coronation day. In this parable, 
therefore, He shadowed forth the real truth. 
By the nobleman, He means Himself By 
the going into a far country to receive a king- 
dom, He means His own going up to the 
throne of the Father, who has promised Him 
the kingdom, and in. due time will invest Him 
with it. By the conduct of His servants and 
His citizens. He means to set forth what men 
in this world will be and do during His 
absence. By the return, He means His own 
second coming. 

Our Lord, then, has gone away to receive 
for Himself a kingdom. Centuries have since 




112 The Blessed Hope. 

passed, and He is still absent. The implica- 
tion is that He has not yet received that for 
which He went ; z. e,, that special kingdom, 
which the parable contemplates, for, upon re- 
ceiving it. He was to return. And this implica- 
tion is made sure by the clear foreshowing of 
the prophet. (Dan. 7: 13, 14). It is true, 
indeed, that the divine Son received this king- 
dom by promise, in the eternal covenant. It 
is also true that He made perfect His inde- 
feasible right to it, when, having become incar- 
nate, He offered Himself without spot unto 
God on Calvary. But it is equally plain that 
His formal and visible investiture with it is 
still in the future. The Messianic kingdom — 
that special dominion, which, as the God-Man 
Redeemer He will exercise upon His own 
throne, in distinction from that which He now 
exercises upon His Fathers throne, is to be 
given to Him by the Ancient of days, when He 
shall come with the clouds of heaven. This 
kingdom is an everlasting one ; and under it, all 
people, nations and languages shall serve Him. 



Question of Time — Continued. 113 

Besides which, observe this further truth set 
forth in the parable. The return of the Lord, 
having received the kingdom, is His second 
coming. His absence, therefore, is to extend 
from His ascension to heaven from the Mount 
of OHves in the sight of wondering witnesses, 
to His descent from heaven, with the voice of 
the archangel, and with the trumpet of (jod. 
Now, what will be the spiritual aspects of the 
intervening period? Christ himself has told 
us in the parable. He bade His servants, 
" Occupy till I come ! " These servants repre- 
sent the visible Church. Some of them are 
faithful and will receive their reward. Others 
of them prove unfaithful. They betray their 
holy trust, and seek to vindicate themselves 
by impeaching the Master. How the facts, so 
far, correspond with the prediction. But, He 
also has His citizens. These represent the 
world outside of the Church. The parable 
shows them in positive rebellion. They hate 
Him. They send a message after Him. They 
cry out, we will not have this man to reign 



114 The Blessed Hope. 

over us. Could there be a truer representa- 
tion of the feeHngs and course of the mass of 
men towards their absent, but rightful Lord 
and King? It has been so along the past, 
since He went away. It is so now, among the 
most civilized, as well as amone the most bar- 
barous. What throngs of unfaithful servants 
in the Church ! What bitter and pronounced 
opposition to Christ through the nations! 
The world over, individual sentiment, social 
customs, public laws, the dominant spirit and 
action of the race cry out aloud, ** We will not 
have this man to reign over us!" According 
to the parable, this state of things will last 
until the Lord shall come and take account of 
His servants and His citizens. Until then, 
therefore, there can be no millennium. 

PROPHECY OF THE LORD. 
(Matt. 24: 1-51). 

Having spoken this parable, the Lord went 
before, ascending up to Jerusalem. It was on 
Friday, apparently, that He reached Bethany, 



Question of Time — Continued. 115 

the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. 
The morrow would be the first day of the 
great week — week filled with events of infinite 
interest. Two days before the passover, the 
Saviour took His departure from the temple 
and the city, saying, " Behold, your house is 
left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, 
ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say 
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
Lord." Crossing then the Cedron and going 
up the Mount of Olives, He sat there gazing, 
in sadness, on the scenes He had just left. 
Eager for fuller knowledge of those amazing 
events which He so often had intimated would 
come. His disciples gather around Him and 
ask, " When shall these things be ? And what 
shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the 
end of the world 7' The time and the cir- 
cumstances rendered the inquiry a most fitting 
one, and its answer a necessity, not only for 
their fuller knowledge, but also for their sup- 
port in the dread experience they were so 
soon to have as His disciples. He, therefore 



116 The Blessed Eox^e. . 

opened His mouth and uttered that memora- 
ble discourse, which may well be called the 
great prophecy of the Lord himself concern- 
ing the last days, and concerning His own 
coming again in glory. Some of its details 
may perplex us. In a portion of it, too, there 
is, doubtless, a parallel between events con- 
nected with the destruction of the Jewish 
economy, and events which will be connected 
with the closing up of the present dispensa- 
tion. But its outline and its essential mean- 
ing are clear as the sun. It reaches from the 
time then present, to the day of the coming of 
the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with 
power and great glory. Look at it, then, and 
point out where, by any possibility it implies 
the millennium before that day. Look at it 
and point out where it does not utterly ex- 
clude the millennium before that day. It tells 
of wars and rumors of wars ; of nations and 
kingdoms in turmoil and deadly conflict ; of 
famines, and pestilences and earthquakes. It 
tells of affliction and persecution in the 



Question of Time — Continued. 11 Y 

Church ; of false brethren, of false prophets, 
and false Christs having great power ; and of 
the large decay of love, because of abound- 
ing iniquity. It tells of the times of the Gen- 
tiles, during the whole remaining course of 
which Jerusalem shall be trodden down, as we 
see at this day. It tells of the preaching of 
the Gospel of the kingdom, in all the world, 
for a testimony unto all nations. It tells of a 
tribulation, unequaled for its severity, either 
before or after it, and which seems to be 
meant by the prophet Daniel, where he says, 
" And there shall be a time of trouble, such as 
never was since there was a nation, even to 
that same time ; and, at that time Thy people 
shall be delivered, every one that shall be 
found written in the book." (12 : i). It tells 
of wide-spread religious indifference, and of 
absorption in the things of this life, so that, at 
length, it will be as it was in the days before 
the flood ; men, everywhere, eating and drink- 
ing, buying and selling, planting and building, 
marrying and giving in marriage, with almost 



118 The Blessed Hope. 

no spiritual care, until the great sound of the 
trumpet startles them into thought and feel- 
ing. It further declares that " immediately 
after the tribulation of those days, the sun 
shall be darkened and the moon shall not give 
her light ; and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of heaven shall be shaken ;" 
and then, in the midst of these thinofs the Son 
of Man shall come. Such is the picture which 
the divine Lord gives of the earthly panorama, 
from the time of His public passion to the 
time of His public crowning. Who can see 
in it the millennium ? Where across its deep 
darkness shines the wondrous glory of those 
thousand years? Nay, where is there one 
gleam of that glory, until it flashes from the 
presence of the Lord himself, as He comes in 
the clouds of heaven for judgment and to 
reign. 

THE SLEEPING VIRGINS. 
(Matt. 25: 1-13). 

To illustrate and impress this solemn 
prophecy, the Lord immediately added the 



Question of Time — Continued. 119 

parable of the virgins, the parable of the tal- 
ents, and a most impressive description of the 
judgment to come. With this His public minis- 
try ended. The parable of the virgins sheds 
a strong light on the present inquiry. Glance 
at it, with this reference : 

" Then shall the kingdom of heaven be 
likened unto ten virgins, which took their 
lamps, and went forth to meet the Bride- 
groom." 

Then. When } While the Bridegroom is 
gone. Not necessarily and only at the close of 
this age, but also along its whole course, when- 
ever the Lord's servants shall say in their 
heart. The Lord delayeth His coming, and 
shall therefore give freer scope to the lusts of 
the flesh and the world. This unbelief may 
become deeper, as the supreme hour draws 
nigh, but how much has it characterized the 
Church of the past. With what mournful 
power does it hold and benumb the Church of 
to-day ! 

And who are the virgins ? Can there be 



120 The Blessed Hope. 

a doubt ? Ten Is the number of complete- 
ness. Paul wrote of the Church in Corinth 
"as a chaste virgin, espoused unto Christ." 
The ten virgins, therefore, represent the 
Church of the Lord among men ; the visible 
Church. Some of these virgins have the true 
divine life in their souls, and, therefore, the 
essential preparation for meeting the Bride- 
groom. Some of them have not this life, and, 
therefore, as the result shows, have not this 
preparation. They are alike called virgins, 
because of their common profession ; and to 
the extent of this profession they are alike 
espoused unto Christ. He is the Bridegroom. 
But He is absent. He has gone away to 
receive a kingdom. In due time He will 
return. To the first disciples, it was a sad 
moment when He said, I go away, even 
though He added, I will come again. The 
words filled them with sorrow. And when 
they stood gazing upward until the cloud 
received Him from their sight, their most 
earnest hope was that His return would be 



Question of Tiine — Continued. 121 

soon. And, when presently they found them- 
selves, as sheep among wolves, and persecu- 
tion began, and its fires became fiercer and still 
more fierce, O ! how they yearned for the 
Lord to come. Their loins were girded, and 
their lamps trimmed and burning. But the 
Bridegroom delayed. Disappointment, it may 
be, touched the nerve of faith. The terrible 
storms around them grew less terrible. In- 
stead of scoffs, prisons, fiames, there gradually 
came respect, honor, influence, even the throne 
and crown of this world. By some process, 
whether this or that, it was soon enough true 
of the virgins that " they all slumbered and 
slept." Men may question the exact degree' 
of the insensibility thus indicated, but it is 
positive and deep, especially with reference to 
the coming of the Bridegroom. 

Have the virgins awaked? When will they 
awake ? How long will they still slumber 
and sleep ? How long will the Church of the 
Lord remain, in this strange spiritual insensi- 
bility ? Turn to the parable. It answers,. 



122 



The Blessed Hope, 



while the Bridegroom tarries ; up to the very 
moment of His appearance. They are roused 
only by the midnight cry, " Behold the Bride- 
groom cometh, go ye out to meet Him." Will 
you insist that the millennium must come and 
go before the return of the Bridegroom ? 
Then the virgins will slumber and sleep through 
all that illustrious period. While those scenes 
surpassing fable which Isaiah and his fellow 
prophets so vividly depict are opening on 
every side, while the full beams of the latter 
day of glory are spreading holy beauty and 
gladness all around, and the mountain of the 
Lord s house is established in the tops of the 
mountains, the virgins, the Church espoused 
unto Christ, will be sunk in this deep spiritual 
insensibility ! Is this simply and absolutely im- 
possible ? Then there can be no millennium 
before the Bridegroom comes. 



TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 
(Acts 3: 19-21). 

The Lamb of God has now been offered. 
The resurrection has taken place, and He who 



Question of Time — Continued. 123 

died has thus been declared to be the Son of 
God with power. He has ascended on high, 
leading captivity captive, and given gifts to 
men. He has sent down upon His servants 
the Holy Ghost, in the extraordinary manifes- 
tations of the day of Pentecost, and in that 
permanent presence, in which He will abide 
with the Church until the Lord himself shall 
return. Peter is preaching his second recorded 
sermon. Deeply moved by the healing of the 
lame man at the gate Beautiful of the temple, 
the people are crowding around the two 
apostles in Solomon's porch. He disclaims 
for himself and John the merit of that mighty 
work, and the power by which it was wrought. 
He tells them that Jesus was the Healer ; that 
Jesus is the Prince of Life, the Holy One and 
the Just; and that in Him alone is salvation. 
" Repent, therefore, He cries. Oh ! ye men of 
Israel, and be converted for the blotting out 
of your sins ; so that the times of refreshing 
shall come from the presence of the Lord, and 
He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was 



124 The Blessed Hope, 

preached unto you ; whom the heaven must 
receive, until the times of restitution of all 
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all His holy prophets since the world be- 
gan." As the discourse moves thus earnestly 
and grandly on, the apostles are put under 
sudden arrest, and spend the night in prison* 
Examine these words. They present a 
cluster of great thoughts, every one of which 
merits the most careful attention. 

1. By the same Spirit who dwelt in the 
prophets, Peter renews the prophecy of " the 
times of refreshing." They had not been 
realized in the history of the Church up to his 
day. He means those signal times of spiritual 
triumph, rest and joy, which Christian faith 
and hope look forward to as the millenium. 

2. As Paul affirms that the destruction of 
the wicked will issue " from the presence of 
the Lord, when He shall come to be glorified 
in His saints," so Peter also teaches that " the 
times of refreshing " will come — whatever may 
be true of creature agencies and powers — 



Question vf Time — Continued. 125 

" from the presence of the Lord," at the same 
coming. 

3. He also teaches that the coming of these 
times of refreshing depends, in some sense 
and degree, on the repentance and conversion 
of the Jewish people ; for the true and only 
defensible rendering of his words is, " Repent^ 
ye, therefore, and be converted unto the 
blotting out of your sins, so that, or in order 
that, the times of refreshing may come." Paul, 
doubtless, referred to the same thing when he 
wrote, " Through their fall salvation is come 
to the Gentiles. But then, if the casting 
away of them be the reconciling of the world, 
what shall the receiving of them be but life 
from the dead } " 

4. The apostle, moreover, connects " the 
times of refreshing," chronologically, with the 
sending of Jesus Christ, whom the heaven has 
received. This sending of Jesus Christ can- 
not be the first sending. That had already 
occurred when Peter thus spoke. The Lord 
had both come and gone. Peter had seen 



/ 

126 The Blessed Hope. 

Him and lived with Him. He had heard 
Him, and beHeved on Him. His own eyes 
had followed Him as He went up into heaven 
whence He came. This sending, therefore, 
must be the coming in glory. 

5. When will this coming in glory be ? 
Peter crives a most certain answer when he 

o 

says, " Whom the heaven must receive, until 
the times of restitution of all things, which God 
hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy 
prophets." How explicit and conclusive ! "The 
times of restitution " and " the times of re- 
freshing" are not only contemporaneous; they 
also coalesce. The differing forms of ex- 
pression point at differing aspects of the same 
times. " The times of restitution " include 
"the times of refreshing." "The times of re- 
freshing " flow from and are a part of " the 
times of restitution." They are now prophecy* 
They will become history, in that great period 
currently called the millennium. Peter, there- 
fore, really says, that Jesus Christ is to remain 



Question of Time — Continued. 12T 

where He now is — in the heaven — on the 
throne of the Father, until the millennium. 
There can, therefore, be no millennium before 
the Lord shall come. Some, indeed, who 
spiritualize, as it is called, these apostolic state- 
ments, insist that until the times of restitution 
means during those times. This, however, is 
not the natural and obvious meaning of the 
word until. It can be gained in this place 
only by pressure. Besides which, it does not 
meet the want of those who thus press it. 
Their theory is that the second coming of the 
Lord cannot occur until after the millennium. 
But if they will say that Peter here means by, 
until the millennium, until after it, they do not 
interpret the word of God ; they wrest it ; and 
they wrest this particular Scripture out of per- 
fect harmony with every other Scripture which 
directly touches the time of the Lord's com- 
ing. The heaven whither the Lord has gone, 
will retain Him until " the times of restitution." 
He will then come again ; and inaugurating 



128 The Blessed Hope. 

those times, He will fill them with the bene- 
dictions and all the glories of His kingly 
presence and power. 

THE GREAT APOSTASY. 
(2 Thess. 2: 1-12). 

It is possible that Saul of Tarsus heard this 
preaching of Simon Peter, in Solomon's porch. 
It is probable that he was present in the Coun- 
cil, when Stephen, with words of the Holy 
Ghost, cut to their heart those who heard him. 
It is certain that he saw and took part in the 
stoning and death of the first martyr. Pres- 
ently, however, he also bows down in peni- 
tence, in faith, in adoring love before Jesus 
Christ. From that moment his life is a conse- 
cration. Damascus, Arabia, Jerusalem, An 
tioch, Cyprus, the whole of accessible Asia 
hear him proclaiming Jesus Christ as the One 
Saviour of lost men. At the bidding of the 
Spirit, he then crosses the ^gean Sea into 
Europe, and there lifts up the banner, and 
tells and tells again the wondrous story of the 



Question of Time — Continued. 129 

cross. At Philippi they beat him with many 
stripes, and cast him, covered with blood, into 
prison, but he gathers a Church of Christ. 
Released, he goes thence to Thessalonica, 
and there again from souls that were dead 
raises a living body of them that believe. To 
this Church he sends his first apostolic letters ; 
the first of those which were to be a perma- 
nent part of the divine revelation. In one of 
these letters he puts on record a most notable 
prophecy. There will be, he says, within the 
Church of Christ, an apostasy, the apostasy. 
This apostasy will at length head up in the 
man of sin, the son of perdition. It will begin 
unobserved. It will advance gradually. It 
will become most unrighteous and deceiving. 
It will gain Satanic craft, power and success. 
The apostle had, indeed, already preached this 
to the Thessalonians before thus writing it. 
" Remember ye not, that when I was yet with 
you, I told you these things ? " He recurred 
to it now, to arrest and crush out an error 
just rising in the Church. Somehow the 

lO 



130 The Blessed Hope. 

Christians in Thessalonica conceived that the 
day of Christ had come ; that its beginning 
was actually upon them. Not so ; said Paul. 
The apostasy of which I have told you, must 
first come, and the man of sin be revealed. 
Meantime, the Lord will remain in the heaven 
which received Him. 

The apostasy ! A falling away in the 
Church of our Lord! When, thou man of 
God, will this be ? The Spirit had not made 
known the time of its manifestation. Paul, 
therefore, could not declare it. He only said, 
" The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 
The seeds of the terrible evil are even now 
planted. The secret leaven is diffusing itself 
But at present there is a restraining power. 
When this power shall be taken away the 
apostasy will begin to be manifest. The 
restraining power was the power of pagan 
Rome. So all the Fathers believed, and 
rightly. When this power gave way to 
nominally Christian Rome, the development 
of the evil, which had been repressed, was 



Question of Time — Continued. 131 

visible and rapid. The spirit of the world in 
the Church, secularity, ambition, corruption 
ran riot, and all too soon the man of sin sat 
enthroned in the temple of God. There have 
been and are other apostasies in the visible 
Church, but the history of this apostasy is the 
history of Papal Rome. 

How long is this apostasy to last? What 
period in the life of the Church and the world 
is it destined to cover ? When will its mighty 
and malignant power end? Listen: "Whom 
the Lord Jesus shall consume with the spirit of 
His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of 
His coming." What coming? There can be 
but one answer — His second coming. The 
destruction of the man of sin is to come from 
the personal presence of the Lord. That 
presence will be as a consuming fire. Chrys- 
ostom said : " As fire In its progress con- 
sumes little insects by its heat before it 
touches them, so the mere approach of Christ 
will be enough to consume Anti-Christ." 
Nothing, however, but this will do it. He 



132 The Blessed Hope. 

will still sit in the temple of God, making his 
impious pretensions, and exercising his baleful 
influence, until the brightness of the coming 
of the Lord shall destroy him. Then only 
will sound forth that exulting cry : " Rejoice 
over her, thou heaven, and ye saints and 
apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged 
you on her!" (Rev. i8: 20.) Until then, 
therefore, there can be no millennium. 

THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
(Rev. 20 : 4-6.) 

To these testimonies of Peter and Paul, the 
beloved John adds that which was made 
known to him on Patmos. There, when in 
the Spirit, on the Lord s day, he saw Satan 
bound and shut up for a thousand years — i. e,, 
during the millennium. Immediately upon 
this suppression of Satan, he saw those who 
had died in Christ, and as true witnesses for 
Christ, living and reigning with Him through 
the same thousand years, or through the mil- 
lennium. He also saw that the rest of the 



Question of Time — Continued. 133 

dead — i e., those who v/ere not dead in Christ 
— did not then live again, but remained in 
their graves until the millennium v/as past. 
This living again, and exaltation of the holy 
dead, at the beginning of the thousand years 
or the millennium, he designates as the first 
resurrection. 

Surely this record of John v/ould seem to 
be plain and decisive. It is a record of literal 
facts, although it is made in figurative language. 
Lest, however, because of the figures, the 
meaning of the Spirit might not be clearly 
seen, there is added an explanation. Just as 
in the first chapter of the book, the seven 
stars and the seven candlesticks are symbols, 
and the Spirit explains them thus : — The seven 
candlesticks are the seven Churches, and the 
seven stars are the seven angels or pastors of 
the Churches — so here, the living again and 
enthronement of those who are Christ's, when 
the millennium begins, is explained to be the 
first resurrection. Of course, this resurrection 
is wrought by Christ. No voice but His can 



134 The Blessed Hope. 

penetrate the graves and quicken the dead. 
As, therefore, this resurrection takes place be- 
fore the millennium, or at its opening, so the 
second coming of Christ must take place then, 
inasmuch as, according to Holy Scripture, this 
coming is to be gloriously signalized by this 
resurrection. 

But, is not this doctrine of the first resurrec- 
tion a new doctrine ? What if it were so ? 
God has now, at least, clearly revealed it. It 
is, therefore, true. All divine revelation has 
been gradual, from less to more. Each 
doctrine in this revelation, has been put there, 
at first. In its seed form. The growth of the 
doctrine has corresponded to the progress of 
the revelation. 

This, however, is not a new doctrine in 
either the history of the Church or in the 
revelations of the eternal Spirit. Almost the 
whole body of the saints in the New Testa- 
ment period and in the period immediately 
succeeding, believed in, and rejoiced in view of, 
the first resurrection. How far this faith may 



Question of Time — Continued. 135 

have rested on the oral teaching of inspired 
men we do not know ; but it also had an 
ample ground in that which is written. Note 
some of the data : 

1. There will be a resurrection of the dead ; 
and of all the dead. This the whole Church 
believes, and has believed from the beginning, 
for so the Holy One most clearly reveals. 

2. Whenever, in the Scriptures, the resurrec- 
tions of the righteous and the wicked come 
into view together, that of the righteous dead 
invariably has the precedence in the order of 
mention. 

3. In illustrating and commending that bene- 
ficence which seeks, and which has, no recom- 
pense from men, the Saviour said: — "Thou 
shalt be blessed, for thou shalt be recompensed 
at the resurrection of the just." There is to 
be then " the resurrection of the just." It im- 
plies as its contrast a resurrection of the un- 
just. (Luke 14 : 14). 

4. Observe also, this : " The children of this 
world," said the Saviour, " marry and are given 



136 The Blessed Hope. 

in marriage. But, they which shall be ac- 
counted worthy to obtain that world " — i. e., the 
next age or dispensation — " and the resurrec- 
tion from the dead, neither marry nor are given 
in marriage." (Luke 20: 35). What almost 
novel ideas to us, who so carelessly read, even 
Holy Scripture. Note them. There is, indeed, 
to be a resurrection of all the dead, irrespect- 
ive of moral character and desert. Here, 
however, a class of men is brought into view, 
who, in distinction from the children of this 
world, will be deemed worthy to obtain the 
resurrection. What resurrection .^^ Not merely 
the resurrection of the dead. The words of 
the Saviour here are definite; they say, the 
resurrection which is out of, or, from among 
the dead. It is that resurrection which will 
still leave some of the dead in their graves. It 
is plainly, therefore, a first resurrection. 

5. Again. In his most interesting presenta- 
tion of this subject, in i Cor. 15 : 1-58, the 
apostle Paul re-affirms the resurrection of the 
dead, and of all the dead. He also makes 



Question of Time — Continued. 137 

some very clear distinctions with reference to 
it. There is an appointed order. Every one 
will be raised in his own class or company. 
Christ is already risen as " the first fruits of 
them that slept." Those who are dead in 
Christ will be raised in their order when 
Christ shall come. The apostle does not 
definitely say when the rest of the dead will 
be raised in their order, but his statements 
irresistibly imply that it will not be then — i, e,, 
when the dead in Christ arise. It will be 
after that. The resurrection of the saints, 
therefore, at Christ's coming relative to that 
of the rest of the dead who are not raised 
then, is a first resurrection. 

6. In his beautiful letter to the church at 
Philippi, the first fruit of his evangelical labor 
in Europe, Paul expresses a most sincere 
desire with reference to his own personal 
resurrection. Above everything else he wants 
to know Christ ; he wants to win Christ ; he 
wants to be found in Christ and to be clothed 
with His righteousness. He wants also to 



13S The Blessed Hope. 

know the power of Christ's resurrection and 
the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and to be 
made conformable to Christ's death, " if, by 
any means," he adds, " I might attain unto the 
resurrection of the dead." His whole soul is 
on nre with reference to this momentous 
result. 

What now is Paul's meaning? He is per- 
fectly sure of a resurrection. Whether he 
knows Christ or not, he will certainly, at some 
time, come up out of the grave. Why, then, 
this so vehement desire ? What does he so 
yearningly want? Not, a resurrection, but 
the resurrection. Nor does he merely want 
the resurrection of the dead. This renderine 
does not express the heart of Paul or the 
mind of the Spirit. The words here are like 
the words, just noted, which the Saviour used 
of those who shall be accounted worthy of the 
age or dispensation to come. Paul's irrepres- 
sible longing was for that resurrection which 
shall be out of, or, from among the dead ; that 
resurrection which will leave some of the 



Question of Time — Continued. 139 

dead not raised; the resurrection of the just; 
the resurrection unto life ; the resurrection of 
those who are Christ's at His coming ; in a 
word, the first resurrection. 

We return thus to the testimony of John. 
It is given in figure. It is therefore new as 
to form. In this form, however, it sets forth 
precisely the same facts, which, in literal terms, 
are attested by the apostle Paul, and by the 
divine Lord Himself The living again of the 
saintly dead, before the millennium, is the 
first resurrection. They are raised then from 
among the dead. The rest of the dead do not 
live again until the millennium is past. The 
first resurrection will be wrought by Christ at 
His coming. His coming, therefore, must pre- 
cede the millennium. And so the continuous 
voice of Holy Scripture bids us look for the 
latter day of glory, only when the King of 
glory shall come in befitting array to execute 
judgment in the earth, and to sit upon the 
throne of His glory. 



140 The Blessed Hope. 

THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY. 
(Matt. 19 : 26; 25 : 31). 

The throne of His glory. What a con- 
trast this will be to the cross of His shame ! 
But He foresaw it and foretold it. It was a part 
of the joy set before Him. When, therefore, 
He was entering into the darkness and death 
of the cross, He lifted up His voice and spoke 
to the disciples of His glorious throne. 
"When the Son of Man," He said, "shall 
come in His glory, and all the holy angels 
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of 
His glory." So a fev/ days earlier when Peter 
asked Him, "What therefore shall we have 
who have forsaken all and followed Thee ? " 
"Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, 
that in the Palingenesia" — the times of resti- 
tution, the millennial times — "when the Son 
of Man shall sit upon the throne of His 
glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judg- 
ing the twelve tribes of Israel." 

There can be no doubt that the coming of 
the Son of Man in His glory, and all the holy 



Question of Time — Continued. 141 

angels with Him, is His second coming. At 
that coming, therefore, He will sit upon the 
throne of His glory. And, as we shall see. 
He will not sit upon the throne of His glory 
until then. The Palingenesia, therefore, can- 
not have its realization before the Lord shall 
come ; for in the Palingenesia He will sit upon 
the throne of His glory ; or His glorious 
throne. His throne, not the throne of 
another. His throne as the Son and heir of 
David ; His throne as the triumphant Mes- 
siah ; His throne as the God-Man Redeemer 
ruling over His redeemed; that throne, of 
vvrhich the immutable Word says, it shall en- 
dure forever and ever. 

But is not Christ now upon His throne? 
Many so affirm, because by the spiritualizing 
process they obliterate clear and divine dis- 
tinctions, but the Scriptures answer. No ; 
Christ is now upon the Fathers throne. Hear 
the voice of the witnesses.' In foresight of the 
Messiah's exaltation the Psalmist wrote, " The 
Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right 



142 The Blessed Hope, 

hand." It was the voice of Jehovah the 
Father to David's Lord, or the Messiah. 
(Matt. 22 : 41-46). He shall sit there how 
long? Forever.^ No. " Sit Thou at my right 
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." 
(Ps. no: i). The Messiah, therefore, or the 
risen and ascended Christ was to sit at the 
right hand of God the Father ; or upon 
the Fathers throne. His sitting there, how- 
ever, was not to be permanent. It was for a 
definite purpose, and a limited and specified 
time. It would end when the enemies of the 
Messiah should be subdued. This most ex- 
plicit voice of the Spirit is renewed and pro- 
longed in the New Testament. Jesus said to 
the Sanhedrim, " Hereafter ye shall see the Son 
of Man sitting on the right hand of power." 
(Matt. 26 : 64). The evangelist Mark said, 
" So then, after the Lord had spoken unto 
them. He was received up into heaven, and sat 
on the right hand of God." (Mark 16: 20). 
Stephen the first martyr said, " Behold I see 
the heavens opened and the Son of Man 



Question of Time — Continued. 143 

standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 
7 : 36). The apostle Paul said, " He raised 
Him from the dead, and set Him at His own 
right hand." " Who is even at the right hand 
of God." " Seek those things which are above 
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." 
" This man, after He had offered one sacrifice 
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of 
God." " Who, for the joy that was set before 
Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, 
and is set down on the right hand of the 
throne of God." (Eph. i : 20; Rom. 8 : 30; 
Col. 3:1; Heb. 10 : 12 ; 12 : 2). The apostle 
Peter also said, ' Who is gone into heaven, 
and is on the right hand of God." (i Pet. 3 : 
22). Such is the concord of the gospels and 
the epistles. They alike tell us that Jesus 
Christ is at the right hand of God, or on the 
throne of God ; and that He will remain 
there, (i Cor. 15: 24; Heb. 10: 13,) just as 
the Psalmist foretold, until His enemies are 
made His footstool. To be on the throne of 
God is to have and to exercise the authority 



144: The Blessed Hope. 

and power which pertain to that throne. But 
more than this. The first Christian century- 
runs its course. It is seventy years almost 
since the risen Christ ascended. The heavens 
open and the voice of the Lord himself comes 
resounding thence : " To him that overcometh, 
will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even 
as I also overcame and am set down with the 
Father in His throne;" words which ought to 
have been the battle-cry of the Church along 
the ages. 

Mark them. The Son of Man, the Messiah 
overcame. Who can express or concieve the 
greatness either of His conflict or His victory, 
He is therefore set down ; not upon His own 
throne, but with the Father in His throne. 
What does this mean } What can it mean, ex- 
cept that He is now invested v/ith, and exercises 
the authority and power which belong to, that 
throne — the throne of the Father — the throne 
of the Godhead. In what character and rela- 
tion is Christ thus enthroned .? Not as the 
only begotten and almighty Son, co-essential 



Question of Time — Continued. 145 

and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, 
for in this view His session there must be 
eternal. He sits in the Father's throne as He 
who, in the flesh, fought with the God of this 
world and all his confederate hosts and over- 
came them. It is therefore as the Christ, the 
God-Man Redeemer ; a dominion therefore 
which He has, not of essential right, but of 
most divine gift. " All power," He himself 
said, just as He went up on high, "is given 
unto Me in heaven and in earth." The power 
thus given He now exercises from the throne 
of the Father over the Church and over the 
worlds; over the worlds with reference to the 
Church. At the appointed time, this dominion 
of Christ will end. It is so written. His 
dominion as the Son of God, equal with the 
Father and the Spirit in being and in power 
and glory, will never end. In the nature of 
the case it is impossible. His dominion also 
as the Son of Man, the incarnate word, the 
conquering and exalted Messiah will be ever- 
lasting. This is affirmed over and over again 
11 



14:6 The Blessed Hojpe, 

by the revealing Spirit. But this Intermediate 
dominion, which as the Christ He now exer- 
cises upon the throne of Godhead, will close 
when the end for which it exists shall be ac- 
complished. It will be delivered to God, even 
the Father. The Son of Man will then sit 
upon His own throne ; the throne of His 
glory. This will be as He told us, at His 
second coming. His saints, moreover, will 
reign with Him. Having overcome they will 
then sit with Him in His throne ; as He, having 
overcome, now sits with the Father in His 
throne. Many times the Scriptures sound out 
this vast promise. They love to repeat it. 
When Christ thus sits upon the throne of His 
glory, the Palingenesia will have come, the 
regeneration — the times of restitution and 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord — 
the latter day of the glory of the Church and 
her mighty King upon the earth. 

What Christ-loving soul will not, with Mil- 
ton, cry aloud, " Come forth out of thy royal 
chambers, O Prince of the Kings of the earth. 



Question of Time — Continued. 147 

Put on the visible robes of thy imperial 
majesty. Take up that unlimited sceptre 
which thy almighty Father hath given thee ; 
for now the voice of thy Bride calls thee ; 
and all creatures sigh to be renewed ? " And 
also with the beloved John, as in the Spirit he 
closes the great revelation on Patmos, " Come, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly ! " 

" Come, blessed Lord, bid every shore 
And answering island sing 
The praises of Thy royal name. 
And own Thee as their King. 

Bid the whole earth, responsive now 

To the bright world above. 
Break forth in rapturous strains of joy, 

In memory of Thy love. 

Lord, Lord, Thy fair creation groans, 

The air, the earth, the sea. 
In unison with all our hearts. 

And calls aloud for Thee. 

Thine was the cross, with all its fruits, 

Of grace and peace divine ; 
Be thine the crown of glory now, 

The palm of victory thine." 



'^¥ 



POWER AND USE OF THIS 
HOPE. 



POWER AND USE OF THIS 
HOPE. 



" Every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, 
even as He is pier eT (i Johfi 3 / 3). 



" Till the day dawn, 
And the Day-star arise, 

Church of the Living God, 

Pursue thy upward road ; 

Look not behind, nor stray 

From the well-trodden way. 

Be not ashamed to bear 

Thy cross on earth, nor fear 

Reproach and poverty 

For Him who died for thee. 

With girded loins press on, 

Till the reward is won ; 

Think of thy absent Lord, 

Hold fast thy plighted word. 
Doff not the weeds of widowhood, nor fear 
To let the world, through which thou passest, hear 
The widow's ciy, and see the widow's faithful tear." 



^ I ^ RUTH is to the soul what food Is to the 

^ body. As the law, therefore, those must 

grow in knowledge who would grow in grace. 



152 The Blessed Hope. 

Each particular truth has Its own fitness and 
power with reference to the spiritual life ; but 
all truth in due combination is necessary in 
order to "the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ;" and that "the man of 
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto to all good works." 

The Scriptures, however, give prominence 
to some truths. They repeat them and em- 
phasize them as of special moment. What is 
the essential story of the Gospel 7 It is 
Immanuel — God with us on the cross and in 
the grave ; the life and hope of the world. 
Without this there would be no Gospel. But 
suppose the Gospel had left Immanuel on the 
cross, or in the grave. Then were our preach- 
ing vain, and your faith also vain. Christ 
risen again is indispensable to any saving 
power of Christ crucified. Christ at the right 
hand of God Is as essential as Christ slain by 
the hands of wicked men. His coming in 
weakness and sorrow has its purposed and 



Power and Use of this Hope. 153 

true end in His coming again in power and in 
great glory. 

ITS PLACE IN THE BIBLE, 

Look at the place of this truth in the Bible. 
The preceding pages have shown how the 
second coming of the Lord enters into the 
substance of the Old Testament, and was 
the faith and hope of the prophets. They 
have also shown how the light of that coming 
pours itself over all the New Testament; and 
was the faith and hope of the evanglists and 
apostles. The Saviour himself often spoke 
of His coming glory, and on the Mount of 
Transfiguration gave some anticipatory gleams 
of it. In almost His last words in the Gospels, 
He said, " I will come again and receive you 
unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may 
be also." The Acts open with the testimony 
of the angels. Scarcely had the cloud received 
the ascendinor Lord from human sieht, when 
they said, " This same Jesus which is taken 



154 The Blessed Hope. 

up from you into heaven shall so come In like 
manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven." 
A few days later, and while Pentecostal 
wonders were all around them, Peter and 
John are looking forward and telling of "the 
times of refreshing from the presence of 
the Lord," and of " the times of restitution of 
all things" in the future. In all the epistles, 
except that to Philemon, and those brief 
sentences, composing the second and third 
epistles of John, the coming of the Lord has 
a frequent place, and this not merely as a fact, 
but as a fact of most signal moment, and as 
meant to exert a mighty moral power. In the 
first two letters of Paul, those to the Thessa- 
lonlans, every chapter rings with the blessed 
sound. In the last two letters of the same 
apostle the same heavenly music is still heard. 
Listen, as he says to Titus : 

" The grace of God that bringeth salvation 
hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly in 



Power and Use of this Hojpe. 155 

this present world ; looking for that blessed 
hope, the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 

Hear him also, as standing at the very point 
where the two worlds meet, he thus pleads 
with Timothy : 

" Watch thou in all things ; endure afflic- 
tions ; do the work of an evangelist ; make 
full proof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to 
be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord the righteous 
Judge shall give me at that day ; and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love His 
appearing." And when we come to the 
Apocalypse, what is it from beginning to end 
but the revelation of Jesus Christ in His 
glory. Such is the teaching on this point of 
the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and of 
the glorious company of the apostles. For the 
first three centuries the Church cherished it, 



156 The Blessed Hope. 

and the quality and power of her faith and 
hope were attested by the blood of her noble 
army of martyrs. 

Now this incorporation in the Scriptures of 
the glorious coming of the Lord ; this causing 
the light of it to brighten the whole record 
from the paradise lost to the paradise restored, 
was not an arbitrary thing. It was not as a 
mere embellishment. It was not for a class 
of Christian men and women whose taste or 
culture might be pleased by this so glowing 
imagery of the Spirit, as they would be by 
the fancies and decorations of a great poem. 
It was because it was essential to the com- 
pleteness of the divine word, and to the high- 
est life and blessing of the redeemed Church. 
It was for the same great end for which all 
supernatural revelation has been made, and 
the whole m.inistry of that revelation has been 
given ; " for the perfecting of the saints ; for 
the edifying of the body of Christ till we all 
come in the unity of the faith and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 



Power and Use of this Hope. 157 

man;" that the individual Christian and the 
collective Church may be fully prepared for 
work and conflict, for suffering and triumph. 

SPECIFICATIONS. 

Pass on from this general view. Beyond 
question, the Bible teaches the great doctrine 
of the glorious coming of the Lord. This 
doctrine, therefore, must enter as an essential 
power into the building up of the Christian 
character and life. But, how do the Scriptures 
use it ? How do they bring it from the ab- 
stract into the concrete, from doctrine into 
practice 1 What applications do they make of 
it to the every-day needs of men in this 
world .^ In what manner does the Holy 
Ghost press upon the Bride those glorious 
certainties connected with the return of the 
Bridegroom so that they may clothe the 
present with their own beauty, sacredness and 
power 1 Take some specimens. 



158 The Blessed Rope. 

THE SCOFFERS. 
(2 Tim. 3 : i-8 ; 2 Pet. 3 : 3-10). 

The Holy One, first of all, arraigns and 
rebukes the men who scoff at the Lord's 
coming. There will be such men. In the 
last days. Is the testimony, perilous times shall 
come. Men will be lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God. Having the form of 
godliness they will deny Its power. They will 
resist the truth. They will become reprobate 
concerning the faith. They will walk in their 
own lusts. Unbelief will keep pace with 
impiety. Impiety will, sooner or later, show 
itself in scoffing. When faithful ones here 
and there utter the admonitions of truth, the 
shout will go up, " Aha ! where, where Is the 
promise of His coming? The heavens above 
us are now just as they were at the beginning ! 
This firm earth will never be moved ! Away 
with your idle tales!" Perhaps the perilous 
times have already come. Certainly there 
are scoffers even now. But, whether now or 



Power and Use of this Hope. 159 

then, what shall we do? Listen: " I charge 
thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who shall judge the quick and the dead at His 
appearing and His kingdom — preach the 
Word." " The day of the Lord will come as 
a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens 
will pass away with a great noise, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the 
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall 
be burned up." 

SLOTHFUL SERVANTS. 
(Matt. 24: 48; Luke 21 : 34). 

The scoffers may be in the visible Church. 
Without doubt, this is the position of the 
slothful servants. They profess to be ser- 
vants. To this extent, therefore, they own 
the absent Lord. They have, however, lost 
faith in Him. They have let go His word. 
He said : " I will come again ; " " Behold I will 
come quickly ! " They say, " We see no signs." 
The world is moving grandly onward. Its 
manufactures, its commerce, its arts, its wealth, 



160 The Blessed Hope. 

Its learning, Its whole sum of civilization, how 
Imposing! Can all this be suddenly arrested ? 
The Lord delayeth His coming. Indeed, will 
He ever come ? Their sense of duty grows 
weak. Their attachments to this world grow 
strong. They begin to smite their fellow-ser- 
vants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. 
Are there now any slothful servants } Do 
they press those around them with their own 
paralyzing unbelief? What then? Can the 
unbelief of men change the truth of God ? 
Will not the Lord return, and return suddenly? 
Ought not the faithful servants to proclaim 
the great fact everywhere, if so be, men may 
be ready for His coming ? Hear the voice of 
the Master! "The Lord of that servant shall 
come in a day when he looketh not for Him, 
and in an hour that he Is not aware of, and 
shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his 
portion with the hypocrites." " Watch ye, 
therefore, and pray always, that ye may be ac- 
counted worthy to escape all these things that 



Power and Use of this Hope. 161 

shall come to pass, and to stand before the 
Son of Man." 

SECULAR LIFE. 
(I Cor. 6 : 1-4). 

The Church is In the world, though she Is 
not of It. The relations of each to the other, 
In the persons and Interests which pertain to 
each, are most Intimate. In this Imperfect 
state, there are rights to be protected ; there 
are wrongs to be redressed. Sometimes 
questions of law and equity spring up among 
those for whom Christ died, and Christian 
brother arraigns Christian brother before un- 
believers. Those who sit together at the 
table of the Lord contend In worldly courts. 
Is this a seemly sight } Can It be pleasing to 
the divine Master ? Must It not bring damage 
upon His cause and dishonor upon His name .f^ 
Ought not the differences of Christian breth- 
ren to be adjusted In the spirit of Christ, 
among themselves ? So thought the blessed 



12 



162 The Blessed Hope, 

Paul. The contests in his day of Christians 
with Christians before earthly tribunals, grieved 
him, and called from him an earnest remons- 
trance. They have not been limited to the 
time of Paul, or to the Christians in Corinth. 
Look now upon the Church of the Living 
God. What can be done 1 How shall these 
unsightly conflicts of believers before unbe- 
lievers be made to cease ? What special 
argument does the Holy Ghost use for their 
suppression ? Turn to the record. " Dare 
any of you, having a matter against another, 
go to law before the unjust and not before 
the saints 1 " Why not dare to do it .? Why 
not continue to do it.? Why.? "Do ye not 
know that the saints shall judge the world 1 " 
Will you reverse this, and have the world 
judge the saints .? And further, " Do ye not 
know that we shall judge angels.? " Shall we 
then seek to be judged by sinful men .? O 
Church of the Lord, abase not thyself! When 
the Lord comes, we shall judge the world and 
the angels. We shall partake of His glory. 



Power and Use of this Hope. 163 

We shall sit v/ith Him in His throne. He 
will give us power over the nations. He will 
make us priests and kings unto God, and we 
shall reign on the earth. 

OFFICIAL POSITION. 
(I Pet. 5 : 1-4). 

When the Lord Jesus ascended up on high^ 
He was still mindful of His Church. He sent 
upon it the Holy Ghost, He carried forward, 
within it, the divine revelation. He gave to 
it apostles, prophets and evangelists, for the 
special needs of the time then present. As 
the permanent gifts of His grace, He also 
bestowed pastors and teachers. Christ him- 
self is the chief Shepherd of the Church. The 
pastors and teachers are shepherds under 
Christ. They have the present care of His 
beautiful flock. It is theirs to open to them 
the green pastures and refresh them from the 
pure waters ; to gather the lambs in their 
arms and carry them in their bosom ; to guard 
them against danger and evil, and present 
them at length faultless in the presence of 



164 The Blessed Hope. 

His glory. What an office and work ; how- 
high and sacred ! But its possibilities of evil 
are equal to its possibilities for good. We 
have this treasure in earthen vessels. The 
shepherds may prove faithless and false ; they 
may lose sight of the Master, and set at 
naught His most holy will ; they may become 
hirelings, whose own the sheep are not ; they 
may flee when they see the wolf coming ; 
they may break down the bars of the fold and 
let In all manner of ravenous beasts. What 
sad records there are of the apostasy, the 
corruption, the oppression of the shepherds. 
The Scriptures foresaw this. They gave 
warning against it. They presented facts and 
motives for unyielding fidelity. What special 
fact and motive does the ever-blessed Spirit 
press upon the shepherds, that they may be 
faithful and true and holy? Simon Peter had 
seen the Lord in His fearful passion in the 
Garden, and on Calvary. He had also seen 
Him robed, as with the brightness of the sun, 
in those fore-gleams of the coming glory, on 



Power and Use of this Hope. 165 

the Mount of Transfiguration. Through him, 
therefore, the Spirit cries with a loud voice to 
the shepherds, " Feed the flock of God which 
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, 
not by constraint, but wilHngly; not for fihhy 
lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as being 
lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples 
to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd 
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory 
that fadeth not away." What a soul-inflaming 
and soul-impelling command and appeal ! O 
ye shepherds of the flock, forget not that 
appearing. With most sacred vehemence 
covet that glorious crown. 

CHRISTIAN LABOR, 
(i Cor. 15 : 58). 

It is the nature of life to be active, to in- 
crease and gain expression ; whether it be 
life in a plant or life in a soul. Death alone 
is fixed. True religion is life. So the Scrip- 
tures constantly represent. They assume, 
therefore, that it will grow ; that it will be- 



166 The Blessed Hope. 

come an increasing power for good in the 
individual, and through the individual, in the 
Church and the world. Because of their new 
nature, the children of God will be co-workers 
with God. How does the Holy Spirit cherish 
and enlarge this life of the soul? By what 
means, over and above its own tendency, does 
He draw it, or impel it, into beneficent and 
holy action 1 By means of truth. What 
truth ? All truth. But truth has its special 
adaptations. This truth will fill the soul with 
penitence ; that will fire it with love. This 
truth will cause the soul to bow down in 
adoration before the throne ; that will give it 
wings, as of an angel, to fiy abroad, in the 
ministrations of blessing. Would you have 
an example 1 Paul was slain by the Law ; 
he was made alive by the Gospel. Has the 
Church since seen a life of so intense Chris- 
tian love, or of so grand Christian work ? 
What special truths were they which thus 
bore him up and on .? First of all, Christ on 
the cross ; " Who loved me," he cries, " and 



Power and Use of this Hope. 167 

gave Himself for me." Then, Christ in His 
glory and the saints with Him. We have 
seen how he longed for that resurrection, 
which is to be from among the dead, when 
the Lord shall come. It was no transient 
feeling. Hear him as he pleads with the 
Corinthians : " Therefore, beloved brethren." 
Pause a moment. Whence this therefore } 
What gives it so tremendous power.? He 
has been telling them of the risen Christ ; 
then of the risen saints ; then of the resurrec 
tion body — sown in corruption, raised in 
incorruption ; sown in dishonor, raised in 
glory ; sown in weakness, raised in power ; 
sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body ; 
then of the last trump, and the change of this 
mortal into immortality — all at Christ's com- 
ing ; and then He cries, " Therefore, my 
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord; 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not 
in vain In the Lord." 



168 



The Blessed Hope. 



PERSONAL PURITY. 
(I John 3: 2-3). 

In order to Its most effective expression, 
the divine life must be strong within. A 
large stream can come only from a large 
fountain. Holiness is power. The more 
holiness the more power. God's people are 
called to be holy, and He is their pattern, by 
whom they are called. "As He which hath 
called you is holy, so be ye holy. In all manner 
of conversation ; for it Is written. Be ye holy 
for I am holy." This is the likeness of God 
in His children. By this they are known as 
born of God. The primary cause of this 
likeness Is the divine Spirit. Its most essen- 
tial means is the revealed Word. Every 
word of God is In order to holiness, and 
tends to promote It. Tell me of Christ dying 
for me, and how can I live any longer In sin ! 
Tell me of Christ rising and reigning for me, 
and how must my soul be drawn upward ! 
This is the experience of the saints. How 
deeply John felt the power of the cross ! 



Power and Use of this Hope. 169 

How deeply, at the same time, he felt the 
power of the throne ! " Beloved," he cried, 
" now are we the sons of God." It does not 
seem so, but it is so. And this flows from 
Christ. This, however, is only the beginning. 
"It doth not, indeed, yet appear what we shall 
be ; but we know that when He shall appear, 
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
He is." This also will flow from Christ; that 
from the virtue of His death ; this from the 
vision of His glory. What then .^ "Every 
one that hath this hope in Him purifieth him- 
self, even as He is pure." What a clear 
and solemn testimony from the last of the 
apostles. And observe : the power of this 
hope to purify the soul will be according to 
the desire of the soul to see and be like the 
glorious Lord in the great day of His appear- 
ing. 

PATIENCE IN TRIAL. 
(Jas. 5 : 7, 8). 
As it was with the Saviour, so it is with the 
saved — the cross before the crown. God 



170 The Blessed Hope. 

might, indeed, take His people to Himself at 
once on their regeneration. They would then 
be free from all evil, and possess and enjoy- 
all good. In His presence there is no more 
death; neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; 
but the light which has no shade, and the 
peace and joy which have no end. This, how- 
ever, is not the way of God. This is not the 
law of His kingdom. In calling His sons unto 
glory He calls them through suffering. Look 
upon the white-robed company above — 
whence came they } Look upon the sacra- 
mental host below — what labor, discipline, 
conflict, and trial upon trial. In the world, 
too, what spread of error ; what hate of truth ; 
what corruption of morals and manners ; what 
bribing of justice; what honoring of iniquity; 
what oppression of the poor ; what robbery of 
the widow and orphan ; what frauds, perjuries, 
violences, on every side; until, like the souls 
under the altar, we cry, " O Lord, how 
long } " All this was, indeed, before known 
and before written. In view of it all, the 



Power and Use of this Hope. ITl 

revealing Spirit gave many a word of counsel 
and comfort. This is His voice : " Count it, 
brethren, all joy when ye fall into divers 
temptations ; knowing that the trying of your 
faith worketh patience." And this : " Tribula- 
tion worketh patience, and patience experi- 
ence, and experience hope, and hope maketh 
not ashamed." And, still more inspiriting, 
this : " Be patient, brethren, unto the coming 
of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman wait- 
eth for the precious fruit of the earth, and 
hath long patience for it, until he receive the 
early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient ; 
stablish your hearts, for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh." Thou martyr at the 
stake ; thou prisoner in the dungeon ; thou 
slave writhing under the lash ; thou unrecom- 
pensed toiler, working yet starving ; thou 
plundered widow ; thou beggared orphan ; 
thou heart-broken wife; thou father and 
mother, going with sorrow to the grave ; all 
ye sufferers, who, while ye suffer, cling to the 
crucified, be ye patient, for the Lord is com- 



172 The Blessed Rope. 

ing : " Behold the Judge standeth before the 
door." 

COMFORT IN SORROW, 
(i Thess. 4: 13-18). 

What dirges of sorrow have rolled over the 
earth through the centuries since the Fall, and 
will roll until the Judgment. Whence have 
they sprung? From sin. Sin gave birth to 
sorrow. Sin is itself sorrow in the seed. Sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 
Death is the compacted sum of all evil. 
Take it here as applying to the body. What 
home on earth has not been darkened by the 
dread shadow of death ? What heart on 
earth has not been wrung and torn by the 
icy hand of death ? Behold, the dead are 
more than all the living. Behold, all the 
living will presently be with the dead. Make 
room, more room for the graves of men ! 

Is there any healing of this world-wide sor- 
row? Can the abyss of death be spanned with 
light? It is possible. It has been done. The 



Power and Use of this Hope. 173 

divine Revealer speaks comfortable words 
concerning the saintly dead. They rest, He 
says, from their labors ; they have ceased from 
sin. Their bodies sleep in Jesus. Their souls 
still live and rejoice with the spirits of the 
just made perfect. This is, indeed, comfort. 
These gracious words have quieted many a 
throbbing heart. They have chased away 
many a hot tear. But, do even they rise up 
to the full want of them who go mourning for 
their dead ? Is there not yet left a deep pain 
to be reached and removed, if it may be, by 
the Almighty Healer of sorrow ? What then 
does He further say.? What still more 
definite and grand revelation does He make 
that this sorrow also may be gone, and even 
turned into joy .-^ Hear Him: " I would not 
have you Ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as 
others which have no hope. For if ye believe 
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
Him. For this we say unto you by the word 



174: The Blessed Hope. 

of the Lord, that we which are ahve and 
remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall 
not prevent them which are asleep. For the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God ; and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first ; then we which are 
alive and remain shall be caught up together 
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in 
the air ; and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with 
these words." 

CONCLUSION. 

This then is that blessed hope ; the glori- 
ous coming of the Lord. It is the next 
great epoch of the future. 

The Old Testament saints looked forward 
to the first coming of Christ. It was their 
polar star. After weary ages faith was turned 
into sight. Men saw the Son of God incar- 
nate. Simeon took Him in his arms. Mary- 
sat adoring at His feet. Peter pressed close 



Power and Use of this Hope. ITS 

to His side. John rested on His bosom. 
Paul, too, saw Him on his way to Damascus, 
and the sight was his salvation. Jews and 
Gentiles saw Him and put Him to death on 
the cross. 

The New Testament saints look forward to 
the second coming of Christ. This is their 
polar star. Again, the ages have been long 
and weary, but the end cometh. The world 
may scoff; and the Church even may let go 
this holy faith ; but, at the appointed time, 
the Church and the world will see the Lord 
coming in power and for righteous judgment. 
They will see the dead in Christ living, and 
sitting with Him in His throne, and then the 
millennial glory. This vast truth pervades 
and inflames the Scriptures. They declare it 
as a divine certainty. They make it the 
ground of argument. They hold it up as a 
most powerful motive. They use it to 
strengthen faith, encourage hope, promote 
humility, fortify patience, mitigate sorrow, 
incite watchfulness, impel obedience, inspire 



176 The Blessed Hope. 

prayer, increase holiness, and awaken joy. 
What a great blank there would be without it 
in even the Word of God ! What a serious 
subtraction there would be from those sacred 
resources, by which His people are made 
strone for the work and battle of life, and to 
win the conqueror's crown. What wonder 
that Paul calls it, moved by his own sense of 
its grandeur, and by the special light and 
power of the Holy Ghost: "That blessed 
hope, even the glorious appearing of the great 
God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 

" O what a bright and shining world, 
This groaning earth of ours will be, 
When from its throne, the Tempter hurled, 
Shall leave it all, O Lord, to Thee. 

O blessed Lord, with weeping eyes. 
That blissful hour we wait to see ; 

While every worm or leaf that dies. 
Tells of the curse, and calls for Thee. 

Come Saviour, then, o'er all below 

Shine brightly from Thy throne above ; 

Bid heaven and earth Thy glory show, 
And all creation feel Thy love." 



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